HONG KONG, Nov 29: Asian stocks rallied sharply higher on Wednesday with investors moving into heavily sold down markets on the prospect the US economy will pick-up next year.
The heavy buying also provided some relief after Tuesday's sell-off which was sparked by losses on Wall Street and mixed signals over the direction of the world's largest economy.
However, overnight US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said economic growth is likely to pick up next year and that inflationary pressures are expected to ease.
This helped to improve sentiment in New York and in Asia where bargain hunters moved in and pushed Tokyo up 1.39 per cent, Seoul gained 0.78 percent and Taipei was up 0.39 percent.
Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta all rose by more than 1.0 percent while gains were more modest elsewhere.
Manila was the only market to buck the trend with a 1.21 percent fall after the government announced lower than expected growth figures.
TOKYO: Share prices closed up 1.39 per cent, regaining the 16,000 points level as investors cheered unexpectedly strong Japanese data.
Dealers said soothing remarks from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke also helped calm nerves on Wall Street after heavy losses Monday.
The Nikkei-225 climbed 220.94 points to 16,076.20. Volume rose to 1.76 billion shares from 1.71 billion on Tuesday.
Hideyuki Suzuki, strategist at SBI Securities, said stronger-than-expected Japanese industrial output figures were a major factor in the market's gains.
The market had been weighed down by factors such as Japanese corporations'conservative views on their full-year earnings and the demand and supply situation, Suzuki said.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.76 per cent higher, rebounding on the back of Wall Street's modest advance after Tuesday's plunge in the local market.
Dealers said renewed demand for certain stocks created by the settlement of the November futures expiry also supported the market, with the rally led by China financial stocks and selected blue chips, including HSBC and Cheung Kong.
The Hang Seng index closed up 141.40 points at 18,780.93. Turnover was 50.06 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.42 billion US).
The market staged a technical rebound after yesterday's sharp fall.
SYDNEY: Share prices closed 1.27 per cent higher, more than recovering from Tuesday's heavy sell-off, with major banking stocks benefiting the most.
The SP/ASX 200 jumped 68.3 points to 5,452.6. Turnover was 2.09 billion shares worth 4.44 billion dollars (3.48 billion US).
Reynolds and Co private client advisor Michael Heffernan said trading began on a lacklustre note but picked up on stronger-than-expected Japanese industrial output data for October.
Volumes were pretty woeful ... but they picked up strongly later in the session ... (that) shows that this market has plenty of resilience, it will have its volatile days but it bounces back, he added.
National Australia Bank rose 1.03 dollars to 39.03.
SINGAPORE: Share prices rebounded to close 1.38 per cent higher with support from Wall Street's comeback.
Dealers added that investors hunted for bargains after Tuesday's market sell-off.
The Straits Times Index closed up 38.55 points at 2,826.36 on volume of 1.26 billion shares worth 1.22 billion Singapore dollars (790 million US).
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.70 per cent higher led by major state-controlled plantation stocks as merger developments attracted local and foreign interest.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 7.37 points to 1,064.60 on turnover of 977.36 million shares worth 1.7 billion ringgit.
JAKARTA: Share prices closed 1.32 per cent higher, driven by a technical rebound in selected blue chips that were sold off the previous day.
The composite index closed up 22.313 points at 1,713.397 on volume of 3.84 billion shares worth 2.69 trillion rupiah (293.35 million dollars).
WELLINGTON: Share prices rose 0.23 per cent higher, with trading dominated by top stock Telecom.
The NZX-50 index gained 8.64 points to 3,841.19 on turnover worth 167.9 million New Zealand dollars (113.1 million US).
Despite our strong dollar overnight, there still continues to be relatively good interest across the board, Stephen Wright of ASB Security said.
After initially trading lower, Telecom picked up a cent to 4.52 dollars as investors digested news that the government will split, but not divide, the company into three to avoid monopoly behaviour.
Turnover in Telecom was a solid 83 million dollars, while interest in Fletcher Challenge was also strong with 25 million dollars worth of shares changing hands.
MUMBAI: Share prices closed up 0.11 per cent in choppy trade as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the expiry of the November equity futures contact.
Dealers said investors were cautious and many locked-in gains from a recent record run.
The 30-share Sensex index rose 14.78 points to 13,616.73.
Looking at the sharp run-up in recent months, local investor buying was sporadic and appears to be waning. Fresh momentum will have to come from overseas funds, said a dealer with brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher.—AFP