Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, March 1

BEIJING -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.44 percent, at 3,273.75 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.06 percent higher at 10,943.13 points. The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 2.07 percent to close at 1,789.85 points.

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MUMBAI -- Indian markets closed lower Thursday. Coal India, IndusInd Bank, BPCL and Aurobindo Pharma were the top gainers among all indices, while ICICI Bank and SBI were the top losers.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed at 34,046.94, 137.10 points or 0.40 percent down compared to its previous close at 34,184.04.

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DHAKA -- Bangladesh's DSE (Dhaka Stock Exchange) Broad Index closed Thursday at 5,870 points, up 65.89 points from Wednesday's finish.

Among a total of 334 issues traded, 250 registered gains and 50 incurred losses while 34 remained unchanged.

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

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) was at 1,860.86 up 4.66 points or 0.25 percent, and the Emas was at 13,237.25 up 19.00 points or 0.14 percent.

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TOKYO -- Tokyo stocks closed sharply lower Thursday after a sell-off on Wall Street overnight on inflation concerns, while the yen's firmness against the U.S. dollar weighed on the market and dragged exporter issues down.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 343.77 points, or 1.56 percent, from Wednesday to end the day at 21,724.47.

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SINGAPORE -- Singapore stocks closed down on Thursday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) went down 0.12 percent or 4.09 points to close at 3513.85.

A total of 2.24 billion shares changed hands with a turnover of 1.45 billion Singapore dollars (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars). Losers outnumbered gainers by 268 to 144.

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HONG KONG -- Hong Kong stocks closed up 199.53 points, or 0.65 percent, to 31,044.25 points on Thursday.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index traded between 30,453.82 and 31,081.68. Turnover totaled 114.40 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 14.62 billion U.S. dollars).

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MANILA -- Philippine shares closed 0.11 percent lower on Thursday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index decreased by 9.52 points to 8,465.77. The all-share index went down by 5.31 points, or 0.10 percent, to 5,077.63.

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HANOI -- Stock market index of Vietnam's capital Hanoi, HNX-Index, closed at 127.1 points on Thursday, down 0.95 points or 0.74 percent against the previous trading session.

About 74.268 million shares worth some 1.254 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 55.8 million U.S. dollars) were traded at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Thursday, an increase of 20.3 percent in volume and 32 percent in value against the previous trading session.

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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 1,115.79 points on Thursday, down 5.75 points, or 0.51 percent, against the previous trading day's closing session.

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VIENTIANE -- The Lao stock market closed on Thursday up 1.22 percent compared to the previous trading day.

The Lao Securities Exchange composite index increased by 11.48 points to reach 950.11 points after closing.

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SYDNEY -- The Australian share market has finished lower on Thursday, joining a global chorus of indexes that were sold off after weakness on the U.S. index.

At the close of trade, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 42.70 points or 0.71 percent at 5,973.30, while the broader All Ordinaries index lost 41.60 points or 0.68 percent at 6,075.70. Enditem