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Asia basks in Dow's close
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May 4, 1999: 6:24 a.m. ET
HK rises 223 points, Thailand soars more than 11%; Tokyo closed
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LONDON (CNNfn) - The record close by the Dow Jones industrial average on Wall Street overnight gave Asia stocks a huge boost Tuesday with the smaller markets enjoying a particularly strong bull run.
The Dow rocketed 225.65 points, or 2.09 percent, to close at 11,014.69 Monday, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq actually lost ground.
Tokyo traders missed out on the hectic buying spree with the region's largest market closed until Thursday as part of the "Golden Week" celebrations.
The Dow's performance helped lift the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, which closed up 223 points, or 1.67 percent, at 13,559.69. The index pared earlier gains in the afternoon session as much of the buying interest was concentrated on second- and third-tier stocks.
"The market followed what happened in the U.S. but the focus was not on blue chips. The focus was on Tricom and other shares in that group," Sunny Chan, head of research at Seapower Securities, told Reuters.
Tuesday's star performance came from Internet-related stock Tricom, with its shares rocketing over 1,250 percent to HK$1.84, after Pacific Century said it planned to take control of the company.
Pacific Century said Monday it would form a new flagship company through the acquisition of Tricom for HK$2.46 billion. The new firm, Pacific Century Cyberworks, would be the sole vehicle to develop Hong Kong's CyberPort project.
Blue chip property stocks continued to perform well after a quarter of a percentage point cut in interest rates Friday. Henderson Land added HK$1.80 to HK$48.40, while Sun Hung Kai Properties rose more than 3.6 percent to HK$71.25.
Index heavyweight HSBC Holdings closed up HK$5 at HK$291, while Hutchison Whampoa was up almost 2.9 percent at HK$71.25.
Singapore's shares lost their head of steam in afternoon trading, after getting an added boost early from good first-quarter economic data. Still, the Straits Times index ended up 1.77 percent at 1,931.90, a rise of 34 points.
In Korea, the Kospi was lifted by both the Dow's performance and increased hopes of further interest rate cuts. Seoul blue chips jumped almost 2 percent to 771.17.
Australian shares were more muted. The Sydney exchange normally mirrors the performance of the Dow, but the All Ordinaries only managed to rise 9 points to finish at 3,083.9.
Thailand's Set index hogged the limelight among the smaller markets Tuesday, after it surged almost 11.5 percent in late trading to 511.94, a rise of 53 points after a holiday Monday. Indonesian blue chips lost some of their early gains, but closed up 4.75 percent at 548.24. Kuala Lumpur staged a late rally to close up 3 percent to 698.28.
In Taiwan, the Weighted index gained almost 2.8 percent to end at 7,588.04, while Manila blue chips closed up 18 points at 2,464.84.
-- by staff and wire reports
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