Asia watch

ASIAN investors were betting on the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 or 50 basis points, and were also snapping up technology stocks following a prediction by Cisco Systems that revenues were on the rise. Hopes that the down leg of a V-shaped recession may almost be complete, at least for tech stocks, continued to drive retail and institutional investors into regional markets.

Japan's big exporters also benefited from hopes that the Fed will generate a real recovery next year, and the Nikkei 225 Average skipped up 186.18 to 10,633.72. The overall performance was restrained by bank stocks. The sector fell more than 1%, led by a 4% slump to a record low in Japan's biggest lender, Mizuho Holdings. Divisions of the bank are big lenders to air conditioning group Ergotech, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, owing $360m (£247m).

Some late profit-taking left Hong Kong's Hang Seng index below its best but it still scored a 1% gain, up 101.59 points to 10,532.31. HSBC Holdings led bank stocks up with a 50 cent rise to HK$88.50 on interest rate hopes, which also lifted big developers. The Cisco effect boosted China Mobile and other telecommunications stocks as well as bringing in buyers for Legend Holdings, the mainland's largest computer maker.

South Korean stocks continued their recent bull run, which has made them the top performers in Asia and the Kospi index added another 1% to recent gains with a 6.32 point rise to 567.94, taking the year's advance to 12%. Electronics stocks set the pace. Chip and electronics giant Samsung rose 3% after the overnight buoyancy in US tech stocks, and was improved by news of a major contract for a telecoms network in China.

Taiwan's reaction was more subdued. Top semiconductor makers gained up to 3% in early trade only to suffer from late profit-taking, which left the Weighted index up a modest 2.41 points to 4082.92.

The Cisco effect failed to buoy Singapore's main market after DBS Holdings, the country's largest bank, resumed trading and slumped 2.5% following Monday's announcement of a 20% drop in nine-month profits and a major share issue. Tech stocks reflected the strength around the rest of the region but gains of up to 3% failed to prevent an 8.15 point reverse to 1332.34 in the Straits Times index.

Enough traders dragged themselves away from the Melbourne Cup to push shares in Sydney up by almost 2%, as shares in News Corp unwound some of their recent heavy losses with a near-4% surge. Analysts now reckon the failure to win the US DirecTV is in price, and are looking ahead to quarterly results on Thursday. Also expected on Thursday are profits from National Australia Bank, which added more than 3% on hopes of record earnings. As other banks followed, the S&P/ASX 2000 galloped up 59.3 points to 3285.1. The All Ordinaries rose 55.1 to 3219.3.

Light dealing in Malaysian stocks left the Kuala Lumpur Composite up 1.46 to 594.31. Trading in Thailand and Indonesia faded away and the SET index slipped 0.36 points to 272.63, while the Jakarta Composite was down 0.8 at 375.14.

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.