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HONG KONG, Jan 24: Asian stocks resumed their rally on Wednesday and closed sharply higher after strong gains were registered on Wall Street overnight amid solid earnings results.
Those gains resulted in Sydney, Singapore, Wellington, Hong Kong and Shanghai all posting record closes while Seoul was the best performer on the day with 1.47 per cent surge on heavy offshore interest.
Tokyo also followed the lead out of New York and rose 0.57 per cent to a fresh nine-month high as Manila climbed 1.42 per cent to its highest finish in almost 10 years. Only Jakarta bucked the trend and eased 0.16 percent on selling in banks.
TOKYO: Share prices hit a new nine-month high, closing up 0.57 per cent, shaking off Tuesday's bout of profit-taking after Wall Street rebounded overnight, dealers said.
The Nikkei-225 index gained 98.83 points to 17,507.40. Volume rose to 2.67 billion shares from 2.36 billion Tuesday.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed in record territory again but were off their highs, pulling back after the benchmark jumped to a fresh all-time record near the 21,000 points level.
The market posted strong gains in the morning session led by China Mobile, taking the index close to the new milestone, but pulled back in late trade as investors stepped up profit-taking in the property and banking sectors.
The Hang Seng Index closed up 51.35 points at 20,821.05. Turnover remained strong at 58.54 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.51 billion US).
SYDNEY: Share prices rose 0.59 per cent for a third consecutive record finish as investors bought resource stocks after base metal prices jumped in London overnight.
Dealers said early gains were extended after figures showed consumer price inflation for the December quarter fell 0.1 percent against the market consensus of a 0.2 percent rise, to an annualised rate of 3.3 percent.
The SP/ASX 200 advanced 33.8 points to 5,768.8. A total of 1.84 billion shares worth 6.26 billion dollars (4.96 billion US) were traded.
SINGAPORE: Share prices continued their record-breaking run to close at a new peak, lifted by Wall Street's overnight gains.
Dealers said the market should continue its uptrend given ample liquidity and optimism over the upcoming corporate earnings results.
The Straits Times Index surged 17.34 points to 3,150.24. Volume was 3.23 billion shares worth 2.16 billion Singapore dollars (1.41 billion US).
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 1.19 per cent higher as foreign interest in select blue chips led the benchmark index to its ninth consecutive day of gains.
The composite index gained 13.92 points to 1,183.04 with volume heavy at 1.74 billion shares valued at 3.25 billion ringgit (928.30 million dollars).
JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.16 per cent lower, led by a sell-off in the banking sector.
Dealers said that sentiment towards the sector was dented by a report that PT Kiani Kertas, a major debtor of PT Bank Mandiri, had cancelled a plan to seek a buyer for the company in order to settle its debt.
WELLINGTON: Share prices rose 0.17 per cent to a fresh record high, although many investors were sidelined ahead of the central bank's decision on interest rates and next month's reporting season.
The NZX-50 gross index rose 7.07 points to 4,138.19 on moderate turnover of 111.4 million dollars (77.8 million US).
A lot of investors are waiting for the reporting season to kick off next month, Grant Williamson, a partner with Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.
MUMBAI: Share prices closed 0.49 per cent higher as foreign funds focused on blue chip shares ahead of a central bank policy review next week.
The markets could see a sharper run-up once fresh foreign inflows come in, said Atul Hatwar, a dealer with brokerage Crosseas Securities.—AFP
