HONG KONG, Aug 27: Asian shares closed mostly up on Wednesday, with Hong Kong jumping nearly two percent after strong results from China Mobile, but investors remained cautious about the slowing global economy.

The Hong Kong market ended 1.9 percent higher, buoyed by a 3.5 per cent rise in China Mobile shares after the firm said net profit grew 45 per cent during the first half of the year on strong subscriber growth and lower taxes.

Among other major markets, Taiwanese shares rose a little under 1.7 per cent, while South Korea also ended in the black. The bourses in Australia and Singapore ended little changed.

Investors were generally cautious ahead of upcoming data, including US second-quarter economic growth on Thursday and Japanese consumer price inflation and industrial output on Friday.

TOKYO: Japanese share prices ended 0.20 per cent lower as investors found few reasons to buy after a lacklustre performance overnight on Wall Street, dealers said.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index dropped 25.75 points to close at 12,752.96. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 5.66 points or 0.46 per cent to 1,223.69.

Turnover fell to 1.304 billion shares, the lowest this year.

Toyota Motor lost 2.7 per cent to 4,770, Honda Motor declined 2.2 per cent to 3,530 and Nissan Motor slid 4.7 per cent to 814.

But Mitsubishi Electric gained 1.5 per cent to 937 after it said it will spend 50 billion yen to boost solar power cell production.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices closed 1.9 per cent higher, dealers said.

The Hang Seng Index closed up 408.06 points at 21,464.72. Turnover was 60.99 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.82 billion US).

China Mobile rose 3.5 per cent to 96.55 dollars after it announced a 45 per cent increase in net profit during the first half of the year on strong subscriber growth and lower taxes, comfortably beating analyst expectations.

SYDNEY: Australian shares closed little changed Wednesday, dealers said.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 3.7 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,011.2, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 5.5 points to 5,087.8.

Some 1.11 billion shares worth about 4.7 billion Australian dollars (4.0 billion US) changed hands.

SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed little changed, dealers said.

The blue-chip Straits Times Index was off 2.10 points to 2,705.09. Volume totalled 759 million shares worth 905 million Singapore dollars.

At about 2,700 (points) now, a waiting game is being played out, said AmFraser senior vice president of research, Najeeb Jarhom.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices ended 0.3 per cent lower, dealers said.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index shed 2.85 points to close at 1,067.65.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be sworn into parliament Thursday after winning a by-election in his home state of Penang.

JAKARTA: Indonesian shares ended 1.1 per cent higher, dealers said.

The Jakarta Composite Index rose 23.51 points to 2,131.06 on volume of 1.69 trillion rupiah (185.9 million US).

WELLINGTON: New Zealand share prices closed little changed, dealers said.

The benchmark NZX-50 index fell 2.48 points to 3,318.52.

Stephen Wright at ASB Securities said the market was quiet ahead of profits statements.

MUMBAI: Indian shares closed 1.28 per cent lower, dealers said. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index fell 185.43 points to 14,296.79.

Investors went short ahead of the inflation data and the monthly futures contract expiry on Thursday, said Bhaskar Kapadia, partner with brokerage Pyramid Securities.

Official inflation data will be announced late Thursday.—AFP