Asia watch

AFTER a week of hefty gains in most Asian markets, investors were still chasing stock on expectations that the US economy is bottoming out. Ahead of unemployment data, which is expected to show a slackening in the number of jobless in the US, and following this week's encouraging data on the service sector, many Asian markets were finishing at their week's highs.

A surge of buying of technology stocks following increased demand and rising prices for computer chips was the main force behind the sharp rally, which saw fund managers scrabbling to get on the bandwagon before it was too far down the road. Weekly gains have ranged up to 16% in Taiwan and 8% in Singapore and Seoul, with Hong Kong showing a 4% rise.

Tokyo is among the laggards, having added just over 1%, and it was one of the few losers today following the inevitable evidence that it had entered a recession in the third quarter. The Nikkei 225 Average was narrowly mixed through the day's trading, before dipping 60.39 to 10,796.89. The 0.5% contraction in gross domestic product in the three months to September came as no surprise, but banks still weighed down the market on persistent concerns over their mounting bad debts.

Today's biggest regional winners continued to be South Korea and Taiwan. While chipmakers in Seoul were in demand, the big gains came from some switching into old-economy stocks, including Pohang Iron and Steel, which jumped 5%. The Kospi built on its week's ascent with a move through 700, as it put on 18.89 points to 705.50. The market is up almost 40% on the year.

The wonder week in Taiwan, where stocks have gained 16.73%, finished on a high note on the feelgood effect of last week's solid election result and demand for semiconductors pulled investors in. The Weighted Average rose 125.07 points to 5333.93.

Property developers remained in favour in Hong Kong, and the Hang Seng index added 86.3 points to 11,832.2.

Stocks in Singapore lost momentum as profit-takers locked in gains of more than 8% in the Straits Times index this week. Blue-chips took the brunt of the selling, which took the index down 0.4 points to 1617.7, although at that level there were some signs of bargain-hunting.

Sydney investors were targeting growth stocks, as they factored in a US recovery. The All Ordinaries put on 78.7 points to 3371.8, driven largely by News Corp, which was up almost 4% on hopes of better advertising revenues from its American media empire. Resources stocks, which are also seen as winners from a global upturn, also contributed, with Normandy Mining at the centre of a bidding war between AngloGold and Newmont Mining.

Malaysian stocks ended a week of gains on another strong note, with the Kuala Lumpur Composite up 2.80 points to 659.18. Bulls are predicting a run up to 700. Thai stocks ran out of breath as investors cashed in on blue-chips to pick up shares in the recently-quoted PTT energy group and the SET slipped 1.82 points to 303.43. Slack trade left the Jakarta Composite down 0.87 at 378.49.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.