February 24, 2007	Saturday	Safar 6, 1428

HONG KONG, Feb 23: Asian stocks shrugged off a poor performance by Wall Street overnight and closed mostly higher on Friday with Sydney, Seoul and Singapore all striking record highs.

Support for Tokyo continued, with its benchmark rising 0.44 per cent and trading at its highest level in almost seven years despite an interest rate rise earlier this week.

This further bolstered sentiment elsewhere with Manila up 0.71 per cent at its highest level in 10 years while Kuala Lumpur rose 0.54 per cent and was trading at levels not seen in 13 years.

Mumbai stood out by falling 2.77 per cent ahead of next week's budget.

Shanghai and Taipei were closed for public holidays.

TOKYO: Shares prices closed up 0.44 per cent at a fresh near seven-year high on optimism that this week's interest rate rise will not stifle the economic recovery here.

Dealers said that exporters benefitted from expectations that the yen will remain under pressure as the Bank of Japan appears unlikely to raise interest rates again for some time after Wednesday's hike to 0.5pc.

The Nikkei-225 index gained 79.63 points to 18,188.42. Volume was slightly down to 2.95 billion shares from 2.99 billion Thursday.

As the BoJ's big event is over and after the solid progress of corporations' earnings after the third quarter announcement, there is a possibility that the Nikkei 225 will top the 18,500-point level, he added.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.47 per cent lower on worries that China's stock markets may come under pressure next week when they reopen after the Lunar New Year holidays.

They said the local market was also weighed down by profit-taking in China Mobile and property stocks.

New listing Huiyuan Juice, however, performed well following strong subscription to its initial public offering.

The Hang Seng Index closed down 97.58 points at 20,711.65. Turnover was 47.63 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.1 billion US).

SYDNEY: Share prices rose 0.32 per cent to a fresh record high on renewed takeover interest in retailer Coles and a resurgent resources sector.

Dealers said investors shrugged off a weak lead from Wall Street to send the benchmark SP/ASX 200 up 19.0 points 6,036.1 on turnover of 1.98 billion shares worth 9.64 billion dollars (7.52 billion US).

Again the local market ignored a negative lead from the US overnight and pushed again into record territory, IG Markets senior trader Harley Salt said.

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed at a fresh all-time high as investors focused on laggard technology stocks and continued to buy property counters.

The Straits Times Index closed up 21.59 points to 3,310.44. Volume traded was 2.13 billion shares worth 1.99 billion dollars (1.30 billion US).

Technology stocks closed higher on active trading, with Chartered Semiconductor up 0.03 at 1.59.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.54 per cent higher in mixed trade as late buying in blue-chips offset profit-taking in the broader market.

Dealers said the benchmark index reached a new 13-year high and was within reach of the all-time high of 1,332 points achieved in January 5 1994.

The Index rose 6.95 points to 1,283.47 on volume of 3.199 billion shares valued at 3.263 billion ringgit (932.286 billion dollars).

Sentiment has been slightly spooked by Wall Street's overnight fall with investors taking it as an excuse to lock-in gains, a local brokerage dealer said.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.93 per cent lower for a second straight trading day of losses on profit-taking led by index heavyweights Telkom and Astra International.

The composite index closed down 16.888 points at 1,791.553 on volume of 2.31 billion shares worth 2.94 trillion rupiah (323.61 million dollars).

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.74 per cent higher snapping a five-day losing streak as strong trading in Telecom brought new energy to the market.

The NZX-50 Index was up 30.54 points at 4,120.30 on turnover worth 148.97 million dollars (103.98 million US).

Telecom, which accounted for more than half the total turnover, led the charge with a 13 cent rise to 4.95 dollars.

The postponement of a capital return may have disappointed some, “but looking out a couple of years, there's going to be huge demand for this renewable energy”.

MUMBAI: share prices shed 2.77 per cent in nervous trade after four straight days of losses led by concerns of a US slowdown, high interest rates and inflationary trends, dealers said.

They said sentiment was also dampened on reports that no major tax reforms were expected from the next week's federal budget.

The 30-share BSE Sensex index fell as much as 453.23 points to a day's low of 13,568.08 before recovering marginally to close at 13,632.53, down 388.78 points. The Sensex dropped to its lowest level in over five weeks, last closing below the 14,000 points level on January 11 at 13,630.71.—AFP