November 04, 2006	Saturday	Shawwal 11, 1427

HONG KONG, Nov 3: Asian stocks shrugged off a weak performance by Wall Street and closed mostly higher on Friday with investors focussing on domestic issues as opposed to the state of the US economy.

Investors were also left without an important regional lead with Tokyo closed for a public holiday. Improved corporate earnings, local interest rates and oil prices stabilising at lower levels provided some leads.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.19pc higher as gains in index heavyweight China Mobile and property stocks took the market into fresh record territory after a see-saw day.

SYDNEY: Share prices closed up 0.42 per cent at a record high after the country's largest bank reported its best ever full-year earnings, boosting market sentiment.

The SP/ASX 200 rose 22.6 points to 5,432.0. Turnover was 1.36 billion shares worth 4.46 billion dollars (3.45 billion US) with 614 stocks up.

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.32 per cent lower as the market consolidated following recent strong gains.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.28 per cent higher with the key index firmer on continued interest in selected blue chips in the banking and plantations sectors.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed up 2.77 points at 998.02, after touching an intraday high of 1,000.06.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.33 per cent higher, led by interest-rate sensitive stocks ahead of a widely-anticipated 50 basis point cut in key interest rates by the central bank next Tuesday.

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.54 per cent higher, led by a strong show of support for top stock Telecom.

The NZX-50 index was up 20.4 points at 3,778.41 on turnover worth 170 million New Zealand dollars (113.5 million US).

MUMBAI: Share prices closed at a third straight record high, recovering from early sluggishness as funds sought benchmark index companies in the oil and media sectors.

The 30-share Sensex index rose 39.67 points or 0.30 percent to 13,130.79.—AFP