Asian markets rise
Asian stock markets rose slightly Wednesday as investors moved in to buy up bargains following losses across the board over the previous two days.
As dealers waited on the sidelines ahead of next week's inauguration of United States president-elect Barack Obama, many bourses were directionless, analysts said.
"Unless new measures for an economic stimulus package come out by that day, gains may be limited," Kenji Shiomura, market analyst at Daiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
Tokyo added 0.29 percent following a heavy loss on Tuesday, while Hong Kong rose 0.3 percent to end six straight days of falls.
Sydney lifted 0.89 percent but the biggest gainer of the day was Shanghai, which jumped 3.52 percent on the back of better-than-expected bank lending data.
Seoul was 1.28 percent better off and Singapore added 0.16 percent, while Mumbai was 3.3 percent better off. However, Taipei dropped 0.24 percent.
The rises came despite continued fears about the state of the global economy and jitters about the upcoming year-end reporting season, which will show how much corporates have been affected by the financial meltdown.
"Cheap (stock) valuations are leading some investors to buy stocks, but it's not yet time to bet on further gains due to a lack of confidence about improvement in corporate earnings," said Won Jong-Hyuck of SK Securities said.
Up 0.29 percent. The Nikkei-225 index gained 24.54 points to 8,438.45 a day after plunging 4.79 percent. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 5.27 points, or 0.65 percent, to 819.39.
Toshiba rose 6.0 percent to 408 yen after the high-tech giant said it was in talks to buy Fujitsu's loss-making hard disk drive business. Fujitsu climbed 5.3 percent to 415 yen.
Shippers got a boost from signs of an improvement in the sea freight market. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines gained 3.6 percent to 604 yen, Kawasaki Kisen firmed 2.8 percent to 407 yen and Nippon Yusen added 1.5 percent to 540 yen.
Up 0.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index added 36.56 points to 13,704.61, after losing 12.2 percent over the previous six sessions. Turnover was 66.23 billion Hong Kong dollars (8.49 billion US).
Anil Daswani, an analyst at Citigroup, said: "Hong Kong's economy will continue to slow rapidly in the first half given its heavy dependence on financial services."
Chinese banks recouped part of their losses over the previous sessions, after Royal Bank of Scotland sold its entire 4.3 percent stake in Bank of China at 1.71 dollars a share.
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