March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

HONG KONG, March 29: Asian stocks shrugged off another weak performance by Wall Street to close mainly higher on Thursday with investors confident that the regional economic prospects remain solid.

US stocks fell heavily Wednesday amid economic concerns as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress the outlook for the depressed housing market was “uncertain.”Bernanke said the housing downturn did not appear to have spread into the wider economy yet, but his remarks appeared to dash investor optimism.

The falls impacted on early trade in the Asia Pacific with most markets opening in negative territory, however, confidence in the region and two days of falls proved enough to entice buyers back into the markets.

Hong Kong surged 1.37 per cent with Shanghai up 0.77 per cent and at another record high. Seoul rose 0.78 per cent, Taipei gained 0.77 per cent, Singapore was up 0.85 per cent, Mumbai gained 0.74 per cent and Sydney was 0.64 per cent higher.

Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Wellington were flat while Manila bucked the trend and closed down 0.35 per cent on Wall Street's lead.

TOKYO: Share prices closed almost flat, coming off early lows as investors remained cautious ahead of a raft of data on the US and Japanese economies.

The Nikkei-225 index rose 9.21 points to 17,263.94. Turnover reached 2.34 billion shares, up from 2.24 billion on Wednesday.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 1.37 per cent higher in a technical rebound after two days of falls, with CNOOC and China Unicom posting steep gains ahead of their 2006 results.

SYDNEY: Share prices closed 0.64 per cent higher as investors shrugged off Wall Street weakness and took inspiration from generally firmer Asian markets.

The SP/ASX 200 was up 37.7 points at 5,960.9. Turnover was 1.58 billion shares worth 6.5 billion dollars (5.2 billion US).

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.85 per cent higher on renewed interest in banking and property stocks.

The Straits Times index closed up 27.13 points at 3,228.88 on volume of 1.82 billion shares worth 1.70 billion dollars (1.13 billion US).

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed flat with profit-taking on selected blue chips offset by a strong return by retail investors to the market.

JAKARTA: Shares prices closed 0.96 per cent higher amid hopes of an interest rate cut by the country's central bank.

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed little changed, shrugging off weakness in US markets.

The NZX-50 gross index rose 2.68 points to 4,112.56 on turnover worth 130.3 million dollars (92.8 million US).

In the light of high currency, higher interest rates, higher energy prices and lower offshore markets, the New Zealand market has traded almost square today, said Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs.

We are coming in to the end of the financial year and probably most investors have signed off on this period. Telecom fell three cents to 4.73 dollars.

MUMBAI: Share prices closed up 0.74 per cent, snapping three days of losses, on buying in export-linked software stocks after the Indian rupee fell against the dollar.

Dealers said the bounce back for the Sensex could be short as investors fear that India's central bank could raise rates next month after India's inflation rate held steady at 6.46 per cent last Friday.

The 30-share Mumbai Sensex index rose 95.32 points to 12,979.66. The RBI will decide full-year monetary policy on April 24 this year.—AFP