24 Sep 2008

Asia-Pacific shares up at close

9:51 pm on 24 September 2008

The New Zealand sharemarket rose 31 points to close at 3260 on turnover of $87 million on Wednesday.

Telecom was up 4 cents to $2.84, while fellow market heavyweights Fletcher Building was up 9c to $7.39 and Contact Energy slid 10c to $8.50.

Kiwi Income Property Trust was down 4c to $1.18 after announcing that its property portfolio tumbled $51 million in value in the past six months, to just over $2 billion.

Austral Pacific was down 8c to 33c a share after announcing a review of its business.

The Australian sharemarket also closed higher, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index up 58.4 points, or 1.19%, to 4,981.9, while the broader All Ordinaries lifted 50.5 points, or 1.02%, to 5,008.2.

The price of gold in Sydney was $US888.90 per fine ounce, down $US1.80 on Tuesday's close of $US890.70.

In Japan, share prices closed up 0.20%, reversing early losses on easing concerns about the financial health of US investment banks which are finding investors.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 24.44 points to end at 12,115.03.

Hong Kong share prices closed 0.5% higher after strong early gains were wiped out by rumours of instability at the Bank of East Asia, dealers said.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed up 89.14 points at 18,961.99. Turnover was light at 59.01 billion Hong Kong dollars.