March 28, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1428

HONG KONG, March 27: Asian stocks closed mixed to higher on Tuesday after weak US housing sales prompted an excuse for mild profit taking in markets which have enjoyed solid run over the past week.

The performance was in line with Wall Street where investors also endured a mixed day after the US Commerce Department said that new home sales fell 3.9 per cent in February, hitting the lowest level since June 2000.

Most economists had been expecting the housing report to reveal an increase in new home sales last month.

TOKYO: Share prices closed down 0.90 per cent as investors locked in recent gains amid jitters over the US housing sector and an upcoming raft of domestic economic data.

The Nikkei-225 index fell 156.91 points to 17,365.05. Volume rose to 1.88 billion shares from 1.53 billion on Monday.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.30 per cent lower in rangebound trade, with some blue chips under mild pressure as US housing data sparked fresh concerns over the world's largest economy.

SYDNEY: Share prices closed 0.44 per cent lower amid fears that weakness in the US housing market will spread to the wider economy.

The SP/ASX 200 lost 26.5 points at 5,964.2. Turnover was 1.50 billion shares worth 5.4 billion dollars (4.4 billion US).

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.92 per cent higher as investors snapped up selected blue chips.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.27 per cent higher as interest in selected property, plantation and blue chip stocks outpaced profit-taking.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.33 per cent higher, led by mining stocks and index heavyweight Telkom.

The composite index closed up 5.942 points at 1,819.660. Volume was 1.91 billion shares valued at 2.75 trillion rupiah (302.03 million dollars).

The market is still maintaining its positive momentum, Inarmas Securities analyst Samuel Sudeswanto Yeung said.

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.54 per cent higher following gains by leading blue chip stocks.

The NZX-50 gross index rose 22.13 points to 4,127.28 on turnover worth 124.6 million dollars (89.4 million US).

Market leader Telecom closed flat at 4.79 dollars, following a strong gain Monday on news of the sale of its Yellow Pages business for 2.24 billion dollars.

But other leading stocks saw strong gains Tuesday. Fletcher Building rose 20 cents to $11.16.—AFP