December 15, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1427

HONG KONG, Dec 14: Asian stocks rallied back into the record books on Thursday with investors buying up ahead of an anticipated end of year bounce around the region.

Recent profit taking, a firmer tone on Wall Street and the traditional hype over the prospects for a year end rally underpinned support and resulted in Sydney, Singapore and Wellington closing at record highs.

Tokyo was up 0.82 per cent at its best closing since May, lending further support to regional sentiment with Seoul surging 2.54 per cent while Shanghai was up 1.15 per cent at a five year high.

Hong Kong and Jakarta returned to near record levels with respective gains of 1.07 per cent and 0.80 percent. Mumbai rose 2.32 per cent

TOKYO: Share prices closed at a seven-month high, boosted by a weaker yen, hopes of a solid business confidence survey and easing worries over higher interest rates.

The Nikkei-225 gained 136.27 points to 16,829.20, the strongest closing level since May 11. Volume fell to 1.51 billion shares from 1.61 billion on Wednesday.

“The market tone was solid as the yen was stable at the 117 level against the dollar, benefiting exporters,” said Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at Toyo Securities.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 1.07 per cent higher, led by select blue chips and China stocks, as the market staged a technical rebound from Wednesday's fall.

Paulson's delegation began talks Thursday with mainland officials on trade and currency related issues.

The Hang Seng Index closed up 201.21 points at 18,919.40. Turnover was 38.20 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.90 billion US).

SYDNEY: Share prices surged 1.55 per cent to close at a record high on the back of a multi-billion dollar takeover bid for Qantas Airways.

The SP/ASX 200 rose 84.9 points to 5,573.1, beating the previous record set on November 7. A total of 1.73 billion shares were traded, worth 4.96 billion dollars (3.87 billion US).

CMC Markets senior equities advisor David Land said the top 100 rises were across all sectors rather than being restricted to specific sectors as has been the case in recent weeks.

It was a very strong market right across the board, he said.

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 1.11 per cent higher to finish at a new all-time high, boosted by renewed buying in properties and banks.

The main Straits Times Index gained 32.13 points to 2,916.28. Volume traded was 1.32 billion shares worth 1.31 billion Singapore dollars (856 million US).

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.38 per cent lower in the third straight session of losses as investors continued to lock in profits.

The composite index closed down 4.13 points to 1,075.47. Trading volume was 786.84 million shares valued at 1.24 billion ringgit (340 million dollars).

JAKARTA: Share prices closed up 0.80 per cent, led by a technical rebound in index heavyweight Telkom after recent losses.

The composite index closed up 14.004 points at 1,767.802 on volume of 2.95 billion shares worth 2.45 trillion rupiah (270.12 million dollars).

MUMBAI: Share prices surged 2.32 per cent higher led by software companies which were snapped up by overseas funds.

Dealers said companies such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies attracted interest after falling from record highs earlier in the week.

The 30-share benchmark BSE Sensitive index gained 305.82 points to 13,487.16, its second straight gain after three days of sharp losses.

Indian companies are slated to report earnings next month for the quarter ended December. —AFP