Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100GMT, May 20
Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:
Tokyo shares ended remarkably higher on Wednesday with its benchmark Nikkei stocks index hitting a fresh 15-year high as sentiment here was boosted by stronger-than-expected Japanese economic growth in the quarter of 2015.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average jumped 170.18 points, or 0. 85 percent, higher from Tuesday to 20,196.56, the highest close since April 2000.
The turnover was about 2,995.5 billion yen (about 24.78 billion U.S. dollars).
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BEIJING -- Chinese shares experienced another day of drastic volatility on Wednesday.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index once surged over 2 percent in the trading session, but the gains quickly narrowed in the afternoon, with the index up only 0.65 percent to end the day at 4,446.29 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.39 percent, or 209.71 points, to close at 15,337.08 points. Total turnover on the two bourses came in at 1.65 trillion yuan (270.5 billion U.S. dollars).
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HONG KONG -- Hong Kong stocks dropped 108.49 points, or 0.39 percent, to close on Wednesday at 27,585.05 points.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 27,490.33 and 27, 751.44. Turnover totaled 137.78 billion HK dollars (17.8 billion U. S. dollars).
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VIENTIANE -- The Lao stock market finished on Wednesday down 0. 19 percent against the previous trading day.
The Lao Securities Exchange composite index decreased by 2.63 points to 1,414.60. A total of 96,656 shares worth about 660 million Lao kip (about 82,000 U.S. dollars) changed hands at the stock market.
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SEOUL -- Seoul shares ended higher on Wednesday.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 18.69 points, or 0.88 percent, to 2,139.54 at the close. Trading volume stood at 447.65 million shares worth 6 trillion won (5.5 billion U.S. dollars).
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MANILA -- Philippine shares closed 0.13 percent higher on Wednesday.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index increased by 10. 62 points to 7881.93. The all-share index went up by 4.34 points, or 0.10 percent, to 4546.74.
Trading volume reached 458.15 million shares worth 6.27 billion pesos (140.81 million U.S. dollars).
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SYDNEY -- Australian stocks regained ground closing flat, after heavy losses in mining and energy saw the ASX/S&P 200 dipped below 5600 for the first time in three months in the morning trade.
The benchmark ASX/S&P 200 regained ground in the afternoon, down 5.2 points off Tuesday, or 0.09 percent, closing at 5610.3 points. The broader All Ordinaries had a similar day, closing down 0.1 percent at 5614 points.
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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 550.1 points on Wednesday, up 13.28 points, or 2.47 percent, against the previous trading day's closing session.
About 128.457 million shares worth 1.79 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (82.61 million U.S. dollars) changed hands at the southern HCM City Stock Exchange.
VN30-Index, the new benchmark index for the southern bourse, which tracks the 30 leading stocks by both market capitalization and liquidity, closed at 572.34 points, up 15.9 points, or 2.86 percent.
A total of 58.433 million shares worth 920.15 billion VND (42. 45 million U.S. dollars) were traded on Wednesday.
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HONG KONG -- Taiwan's share prices closed lower Wednesday with the weighted index down 31.46 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 9,685.31, according to news reaching here from Taipei.
Turnover totaled 97.63 billion new Taiwan dollars (about 3.2 billion U.S. dollars).
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HANOI -- Stock market index of Vietnam's capital Hanoi, HNX- Index, closed at 79.34 points on Wednesday, up 1.9 points, or 2.45 percent, against the previous trading session.
A total of 59.753 million shares worth 677.920 billion Vietnamese dong (31.38 million U.S. dollars) were traded at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Wednesday, an increase of 51.82 percent in volume and 55.97 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 14.36 points, or 0.42 percent, to close at 3,439.68.
A total of 1.57 billion shares changed hands with turnover of 1. 06 billion Singapore dollars (791 million U.S. dollars).
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BANGKOK -- The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index Wednesday moved down 5.85 points, or 0.38 percent to close at 1,525.96 points.
Some 6.95 billion shares worth 44.59 billion baht (about 1.33 billion U.S. dollars) changed hands.
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MUMBAI -- Indian stocks closed Wednesday with the BSE benchmark index Sensex closing at 27,837.21 points, 191.68 points or 0.69 percent up from the previous close of 27,645.53 points.
The Sensex rebounded after seeing several sessions of slumps amid uncertainties of economic performance one year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.
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KUALA LUMPUR -- The Malaysian stock market ended mixed here on Wednesday.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) was at 1,810.11 up 0.39 of a point or 0.02 percent, and the Emas was at 12,498.19 down 0. 60 of a points or 0.005 percent.
Turnover declined to 1.92 billion shares valued at 1.94 billion ringgit Malaysia (536.21 million U.S. dollars), compared with 2.09 billion shares valued at 2.00 billion ringgit Malaysia (556.64 million U.S. dollars) on Tuesday.
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DHAKA -- Bangladeshi DSE (Dhaka Stock Exchange) Broad Index closed Wednesday at 4,455.57 points, down 3.71 points or about 0. 08 percent from Tuesday's finish.
Total turnover decreased to about 7.83 billion taka (about 100. 37 million U.S. dollars) on Wednesday from about 8.09 billion taka (about 103.69 million U.S. dollars) on Tuesday. Endi