RP shares star in Asia, Tokyo ends up

RP shares star in Asia, Tokyo ends up

SINGAPORE (Agencies): Philippine stocks surged 17 percent on Monday after the weekend departure of President Joseph Estrada, bracing markets elsewhere in Asia, and Tokyo shares staged a late recovery to notch up their seventh successive gain.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei ended up 0.31 percent at 14,032.42, after spending most of the day in negative territory.

The index was down more than one percent at one point, as gains in the yen drove profit taking in exporter stocks.

The Nikkei's sequence of seven straight gains is its longest positive run since it rose for eight sessions in August 1999.

Trading was subdued in some markets ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays, but Manila celebrated the peaceful transfer of power from Estrada to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The 33-share composite index leapt 17.6 percent or 255 points, to end at 1,708 points -- its biggest one-day gain ever.

"A lot of the foreign funds that have sold down the Philippine market have participated today...A big percentage is foreign buying, probably higher than 50 percent," said Vanessa Lim, fund manager of UCPB Trust, which manages funds of close to 30 billion pesos.

The gains in most markets, Singapore a notable exception as it was down around 0.80 percent in afternoon trade, came despite a weaker lead-in from the United States.

U.S. stocks were hurt on Friday by concerns over the slowing of the economy, with the blue-chip Home Depot warning of disappointing profits and U.S. consumer sentiment falling to its lowest level in more than two years during December.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.7 points, or 0.9 percent, to 10.587.6, while the Nasdaq index finished up less the two points, or 0.07 percent, at 2770.4.

The softer U.S. market took some of the momentum out of the U.S. dollar, which had hit a 17-month high of 119.90 yen last week, and it eased to a one-week low of 116.25 yen.

That saw investors taking profit on Japanese exporter stocks such as Sony, which had gained as the weakening yen boosted their potential export income, before the late recovery.

"The yen's rebound is inviting investors to lock in profits on export-sensitive high-techs after last week's surge," said Hidenori Kawasaki, general manager in Kokusai Securities' equities trading division.

The Philippines' record gains bolstered Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, which hit 16,000 points for the first time in three months.

At the midday break the Hang Seng was up 0.85 percent at 16,069.4. A key driver was the 21 percent gain in First Pacific, a conglomerate with many assets in the Philippines.

However, the index was struggling to go too far beyond 16,000 in late morning trade, as many blue chips drew profit taking in the wake of sharp gains late last week and ahead of the holidays.

The Hong Kong stock market will close at lunchtime Tuesday for the lunar new year holiday, and will reopen next Monday. Taiwan's market is already closed and will also reopen next Monday.

Indonesian shares ended higher as blue chips rallied across the board, led by foreign buying in bellwether Telkom.

The JSX Composite index ended up 1.5 percent, or 6.350 points, at 417.908. Gainers led decliners 73 to 48 with 68 unchanged.

Volume was 305 million shares valued at Rp 311 billion.

The market made strong gains in the afternoon as foreign brokerages snapped up Telkom shares, with the stock closing up 4.2 percent, or Rp 100, to Rp 2,475 after its American Depositary Receipts climbed 3.6 percent to $5.3475 Friday.