Asian rally marches into 4th day
Asian share prices extended their rally into a fourth day on Wednesday, taking their cue from Wall Street and boosted by Japan's latest moves to fight off recession.
Tokyo's Nikkei-225 inched up 0.29 percent to a new five-week high while a strong performance from banking giant HSBC helped push Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.86 percent higher.
Investors, enjoying a long-awaited rebound, cheered Wall Street's strong performance overnight and were further buoyed by Japan's announcement it would pump more funds into its financial system.
The Bank of Japan said it would raise its purchases of government bonds, a day after announcing loans of 10 billion dollars to commercial banks.
"Sentiment has improved and I expect more buying interest in banking stocks and China plays," Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires in Hong Kong.
But shares in Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto tanked almost 10 percent as fears grew over its proposed tie-up with China's Chinalco, which has unsettled shareholders and lawmakers.
TOKYO: Up 0.29 percent. The Nikkei-225 index rose 23.04 points to 7,972.17.
The Nikkei reached its highest level since early February, at one point hitting the key 8,000-point level before investors moved to lock in gains.
HONG KONG: Up 1.86 percent. The Hang Seng Index added 239.08 points to 13,117.17.
SHANGHAI: Up 0.24 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 5.40 points to 2,223.73.
TAIPEI: Up 0.12 percent. The weighted index rose 6.15 points to 5,047.54.
SINGAPORE: Up 1.08 percent. The Straits Times Index rose 16.91 points to 1,575.94.
KUALA LUMPUR: Up 0.70 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was 6.09 points higher at 847.96.
BANGKOK: Up 0.92 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index rose 3.88 points to 426.20.
JAKARTA: Up 0.82 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index gained 10.74 points to 1,322.83.
MANILA: Up 0.62 percent. The composite index rose 10.95 points to 1,770.28.
MUMBAI: Up 1.27 percent. The Sensex index rose 112.86 points to 8,976.68.