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Asia higher on Nikkei surge
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April 1, 1999: 6:40 a.m. ET
Tokyo heralds new fiscal year with 490-point surge; good mood spreads
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Tokyo's bull run resumed in earnest Thursday, the first day of the new fiscal year. The Nikkei powered 490 points higher, whetting investors' appetites from Sydney to Seoul. Malaysian shares surged nearly 5 percent, while Hong Kong and Korea closed sharply higher.
In some markets, however, moves may have been exacerbated by light volumes, as many investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the Easter holiday in western markets.
In a uniformly positive day across the Pacific Rim, investors ignored the 127 point slide in the Dow Jones industrial average overnight.
In Kuala Lumpur, shares on the composite index jumped 4.92 percent to 527.56 after Standard & Poor's announced an upgrade in the nation's sovereign rating. The ratings agency acted a day after the country's central bank said in its annual report it expected the economy to grow between 1 and 2 percent this year.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei soared 490.97 points, or 3.1 percent, to close at 16,237.56. At one point, the Nikkei peaked at 16,449.97, its highest intraday mark since last July.
Driving the rally, traders said, were fresh hopes that Japan's corporate sector may be on the brink of a major facelift following previously announced revamps by several Japanese juggernauts, among them Mitsubishi, Sony Corp., Hitachi, Toshiba and NEC.
The rally coincided with remarks by Japan's trade vice-minister, Osamu Watanabe, that the country's economy is expected to have performed much better in the first quarter of this year than in the prior three-month period.
The comments may help allay concerns that Japan's long-awaited recovery is in jeopardy following the release of weaker-than-expected unemployment and industrial production data earlier this week. They came a day after the IMF predicted Japan would not emerge from its recession this year.
On the corporate front, shares of Mitsubishi ended 1.29 percent higher, at 785 yen, a day after the electrical and engineering giant announced a three-year revamp that includes the elimination of 14,500 jobs. Other carmakers also finished higher: Honda rose 3.55 percent to 5,540 yen, while Mazda gained just over 1 percent to 465 yen.
The buying frenzy in Tokyo provided a boost to Hong Kong, where the benchmark Hang Seng index closed up 130.78 points, or 1.2 percent, at 11,072.98, amid strong futures buying. Earlier in the day, stocks had see-sawed dramatically, bouncing back from a loss of 90 points.
South Korean shares climbed nearly 3 percent, to 636.89, cheered by the sharp gains in Tokyo. Taiwan's weighted index closed up 2 percent, while Manila stocks finished 0.8 percent higher.
Australian shares overcame an early bout of Dow-related weakness to close firmer as investors shied away from any major activity ahead of the Easter holiday. In a shortened session, the All Ordinaries index advanced 6.2 points, or about 0.2 percent, to close at 2,973.4.
In Singapore, bank and property stocks helped lead the Straits Times index 1.77 percent higher in late afternoon trade as DBS Bank and OCBC Bank marked new five-year highs amid hopes that their dual-listing status would shortly be scrapped, Reuters reported. The index closed up 26.88 points at 1,545.19.
Jakarta shares lost some ground in late trade, but still ended up 0.21 percent in subdued trade ahead of the Easter holiday. Thai stocks rose 1.15 percent on the SET index.
--from staff and wire reports
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