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HONG KONG

Hong Kong shares rise 0.6%

Hong Kong share prices rose 0.6 per cent yesterday on hopes of further US interest rate cuts, dealers said.

The Hang Seng index closed up 85.86 points at 13,335.95 on turnover of HK$10.7 billion (US$1.4 billion).

Marty Chan, an analyst with Polaris Securities, said investors believed the US Federal Reserve may continue to cut interest rates in the next few months, following its half percentage point rate cut on Tuesday.

"It may not be the end of the US interest rate cut cycle. Given the strong possibility for further US interest rate cuts, some investors covered their short positions," he said.

Chan said selling pressure was not notable in financial and property stocks, following early gains which pushed the market 2.1 per cent higher in the morning session.

"Profit taking for the overall market strengthened in late trade after the acute losses in Japan," Chan said.

TOKYO

Stock prices close down

Tokyo stocks fell 2.6 per cent yesterday in nervous trading as investors braced for a raft of earnings reports by heavyweight companies, brokers said.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei-225 average closed down 359.76 points at 13,694.27.

"From the outset, buying sentiment was weak as investors opted to take a wait-and-see stance ahead of earnings reports by major Japanese companies," Nikko Securities product manager Hiroichi Nishi said.

The Topix index of all issues on the market's first section dropped 21.81 points to 1,357.03. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 923 to 388 while 144 others were unchanged.

Turnover on the major board totalled an estimated 692 million shares against the previous day's 705.4 million shares.

"Share prices lost ground as many investors stuck to the sidelines as they were uncertain about how to assess the earnings reports," said Daiwa Securities equity manager Shunsuke Nishino.

The heavyweights releasing their earnings for the fiscal year to March included Japan's biggest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, and the world's largest maker of integrated circuit ceramic packages Kyocera Corp.

After the stock market closed, Toyota announced record-breaking sales and profit figures. Its share price, however, had fallen 40 yen (US$0.33), or 1 per cent, to 4,030 yen (US$32.80) during the session.

Japanese investors were also "disappointed by a quiet reaction on Wall Street" to a half percentage point Federal Reserve rate cut on Tuesday, Nishi said.

He also attributed the sharp downturn in Tokyo to a profit warning released after Tuesday's close by electronics parts maker Murata Manufacturing.

NEW YORK

Wall Street ends flat

Share prices ended nearly flat on Tuesday after the impact of a half-point Federal Reserve rate cut was offset by fears of further weakness in the US economy.

The Dow Jones industrials closed down 4.36 points (0.04 per cent) at 10,872.97, while the NASDAQ composite rose 3.74 points (0.2 per cent) to 2,085.66.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 0.52 point (0.04 per cent) to 1,249.44.

Dealers said Wall Street is wrestling with contradictory economic signals. On the one hand, lower interest rates from the Federal Reserve indicate improved expectations going forward, while fear of further softness is making some investors nervous.