February 28, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 10, 1428

HONG KONG, Feb 27: Asian stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday with regional benchmarks following Wall Street's lead and Shanghai grabbing the spotlight after taking a serious beating.

Rising oil prices amid tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions had led New York lower and with many Asian markets having traded at record or multi year highs, profit taking set in during early trade.

TOKYO: Share prices closed down 0.52 per cent as investors locked in profits made on the back of the market's recent surge to near seven-year highs.

The Nikkei-225 index fell 95.43 points to 18,119.92. Volume was 3.014 billion shares, up slightly from 3.0 billion Monday.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed sharply lower, losing 1.76 per cent, as China-related stocks took a severe beating in late trade after the Shanghai market suffered its biggest one day fall in 10 years.

SYDNEY: Share prices closed down 0.83 per cent as investors took profits after strong gains and record closes over the past week. The SP/ASX 200 closed down 50.2 points at 5,993.8. A total of 1.08 billion shares worth 6.54 billion dollars (5.19 billion US) were traded.

SINGAPORE: Share prices plunged 2.29 per cent in line with big falls in Hong Kong and China markets.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices plunged 2.81 per cent -- the biggest one-day fall in two years -- following falls in regional markets.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 1.11 per cent lower amid heavy late selling.

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.27 per cent lower as Air New Zealand's take off to a three-year high was offset by a slump in Sky TV despite a 23 percent profit rise.

The NZX-50 index was down 11.19 points at 4,099.43 on turnover worth 136.51 million dollars (96.14 million US).

MUMBAI: Share prices fell 1.25 per cent in cautious trade ahead of the federal budget to be announced on Wednesday.—AFP