January 24, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 04, 1428

HONG KONG, Jan 23: Asian stocks closed mostly higher on Tuesday but gains were slight after Wall Street lost ground overnight and as investors consolidate after another sharp rally.

A mild rise in Sydney, Shanghai and Wellington enabled all three to again close at record highs while Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul typified the broader mood by closing little change.

Kuala Lumpur was up 0.97 percent on strong corporate earnings but profit takers pushed Singapore off its all-time high by 0.39 percent while Mumbai fell 1.18 percent ahead of options expiries.

TOKYO: Share prices closed little changed, held in check as investors cashed in on Monday's nine-month highs after an overnight slump on Wall Street.

Dealers said the market recovered from early lows on the view that fundamentals remain strong, with investors expecting healthy quarterly corporate earnings later this month.

The Nikkei-225 index fell 15.61 points at 17,408.57. Volume climbed to 2.36 billion shares from 2.03 billion shares Monday.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed flat in volatile trade as gains in China Mobile and select blue chips helped recoup early losses driven by property and mainland financial stocks.

The Hang Seng Index closed down 2.52 points at 20,769.70. Turnover was 55.84 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.16 billion US dollars).

Many people believe that China Mobile has a good chance to edge up further after it reported gaining significant new subscriber numbers in urban areas in the mainland, said Kitty Chan, director at Celestial Asia Securities Holdings.

Its gains, together with those of other select blue chips, helped the market to recover from weakness in early trade, she said.

Chan added that the recovery was also aided by hopes that the market will trend higher as the so-called “hot money” continues to flow into Hong Kong.

Turnover remains heavy and this reflects the continued inflow of institutional monies and prospects of more gains by the market, she said.

China Mobile closed up 1.85 at 75.70.

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed lower on profit-taking in blue chip stocks after a strong rally the previous day sent the index soaring to new record peaks.

The Straits Times Index fell 12.30 points to 3,132.90. Volume was 2.60 billion shares worth 2.01 billion dollars (1.31 billion US).

Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew said in remarks published Sunday the government will cut the existing corporate tax rate of 20 percent by at least one percentage point.

A dealer with a local brokerage said the market may undergo further corrections.

The profit-taking is not that bad... the market is still anticipating good results,” he said.

Technology stocks were lower, with Venture Corp down 0.20 at 14, Chartered Semiconductor down 0.02 at 1.25 and Creative Technology down 0.10 at 10.70.

Singapore Airlines down 0.10 to 17.80.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.97 per cent higher, as investor sentiment was supported by strong profit results and Genting group's move into the Macau casino business.

The composite index gained 11.27 points to 1,169.12. Volume was heavy at 1.56 billion shares, valued at 2.81 billion ringgit (802 million dollars).

JAKARTA: Share prices closed down 0.49 per cent on profit-taking after recent gains, though late interest in Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) helped the market end off its lows.

WELLINGTON: Share prices rose 0.24 per cent to a fresh record high, with the market's second largest stock Fletcher Building taking the lead.

The NZX-50 gross index rose 10.04 points to 4,131.13 on turnover of 93.5 million dollars (65.3 million US).

MUMBAI: Share prices closed 1.18 per cent lower as investors sold ahead of the expiry of the monthly futures contract this week, dealers said.

But India's largest private phone company Bharti Airtel bucked the trend and rose after reporting net profit more than doubled to 12.15 billion rupees (274 million dollars) in the quarter ended December 31.

The 30-share Sensex closed down 168 points at 14,041.24.

Investors are not keen to build up fresh positions until the expiry of the derivatives cycle (on Thursday), said Hiten Mehta, a fund manager with Fortune Financial Services.—AFP