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Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100GMT, March 4

Xinhua, March 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Tokyo stocks ended Wednesday lower as selling offset buying after recent gains, with the market's benchmark Nikkei index closed at a one-week low.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 111.56 points, or 0. 59 percent, from Tuesday to 18,703.60.

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BEIJING -- Chinese shares rallied on Wednesday as expectations ran high for new reform measures ahead of the annual parliamentary session slated to open on Thursday.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index moved up 0.51 percent to finish at 3,279.53 points. The Shenzhen Component Index advanced 1. 12 percent to close at 11,655.08 points.

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HONG KONG -- Hong Kong stocks dropped 237.4 points, or 0.96 percent, to close on Wednesday at 24,465.38 points.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 24,705.96 and 24, 439.29. Turnover totaled 77.97 billion HK dollars (10.06 billion U. S. dollars).

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SYDNEY -- The Australian share market closed lower on Wednesday after official data revealed that Australia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew slower than expected.

At the official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 32.3 points, or 0.54 percent, at 5,901.6, while the broader All Ordinaries index slipped 31.4 points, or 0.53 percent, to 5,871.5.

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SEOUL -- Seoul shares ended lower on Wednesday.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) slid 3. 09 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,998.29 at the close. Trading volume stood at 370 million shares worth 4.6 trillion won (4.2 billion U.S. dollars).

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VIENTIANE -- The Lao stock market finished on Wednesday up 0.12 percent against the previous trading day.

The Lao Securities Exchange composite index increased by 1.76 points to 1,422.98. A total of 36,699 shares worth about 261 million Lao kip (about 32,000 U.S. dollars) changed hands at the stock market.

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HONG KONG -- Taiwan's share prices closed higher Wednesday with the weighted index up 15.96 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 9, 621.73, according to news reaching here from Taipei.

Turnover totaled 84.23 billion new Taiwan dollars (about 2.68 billion U.S. dollars).

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MANILA -- Philippine shares closed 0.92 percent higher on Wednesday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index increased by 71. 32 points to 7847.83. The all-share index went up by 32.24 points, or 0.71 percent, to 4557.31.

Trading volume reached 1.55 billion shares worth 9.20 billion pesos (208.67 million U.S. dollars).

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HO CHI MINH CITY -- VN-Index, the stock market index of Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City bourse in south Vietnam, closed at 600.39 points on Wednesday, up 3.67 points or 0.62 percent, against the previous trading day's closing session.

About 120.522 million shares worth 2.047 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (95.40 million U.S. dollars) changed hands at the southern HCM City Stock Exchange. Prices of 141 stocks went up, 72 stocks fell down while 75 stocks remained unchanged.

VN30-Index, the new benchmark index for the southern bourse, which tracks the 30 leading stocks by both market capitalization and liquidity, closed at 629.96 points, up 2.42 points or 0.39 percent.

A total of 39.679 million shares worth 806.67 billion VND (37. 59 million U.S. dollars) were traded on Wednesday.

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HANOI -- Stock market index of Vietnam's capital Hanoi, HNX- Index, closed at 86.85 points on Wednesday, up 0.61 points, or 0. 71 percent, against the previous trading session.

A total of 50.512 million shares worth 643.873 billion Vietnamese dong (30.16 million U.S. dollars) were traded at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Wednesday, an increase of 13.47 percent in volume and 16.03 percent in value against the previous trading session.

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SINGAPORE -- Singapore stocks finished lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) down 6.58 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 3,415.53.

A total of 1.38 billion shares changed hands with turnover of 1. 02 billion Singapore dollars (748 million U.S. dollars).

KUALA LUMPUR -- The Malaysian stock market ended higher here on Wednesday.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) was at 1,825.54, up 4. 29 points or 0.23 percent, and the Emas was at 12,538.88 up 20.88 points or 0.17 percent.

Turnover decreased to 2.12 billion shares valued at 2.16 billion ringgit Malaysia (592.19 million U.S. dollars), compared with 2.83 billion shares valued at 2.35 billion ringgit Malaysia ( 647.74 million U.S. dollars) on Tuesday.

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JAKARTA -- Indonesian shares dropped 26.56 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 5,448.06 on Wednesday.

Some 211,290 transactions were booked, involving 5.34 billion shares worth 5.74 trillion rupiah (about 442.80 million U.S. dollars). Endi