(RTTNews) - The stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed sharply higher on Monday, buoyed by the aggressive coordinated measures taken by central banks and governments worldwide to help contain the global financial crisis.

Leading central banks across the globe announced additional measures to provide broad access to liquidity and funding to financial institutions. The U. S. Federal Reserve along with the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank revealed further measures to boost liquidity in short-term U.S. dollar funding markets. Meanwhile, the G20 finance ministers pledged over the weekend to work together to improve regulation, supervision and overall functioning of the world’s financial markets.

Key indices in Hong Kong, Singapore and India closed sharply higher. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped more than 5%, while South Korea’s KOSPI Index and China’s Shanghai Composite Index closed with gains of more than 3.5%. Bucking the trend, the Taiwan stock market closed lower. The Japanese stock market was closed for a public holiday.

The South Korean market closed sharply higher following Friday’s steep losses. In a volatile session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI ended the day’s trading at 1288.53, up 47.06 points or 3.79%.

Steep gains prompted the Korea Exchange operator to activate the so-called “sidecar” to suspend trading temporarily to cool the market shortly after its opening.

On the economic front, the central bank said that the sluggish economy and depreciation of the Korean won caused overseas spending by local travelers to fall this year for the first time since 2003. According to the Bank of Korea, foreign spending was US$10.02 billion in the first eight months of this year, down 6.1% from US$10.67 billion in the same period in 2007.

In currency trading, the South Korean won jumped for a third straight session against the U.S. dollar. The won closed at 1,238 won to the US dollar, up 71 won from Friday’s close.

In the financial sector, stocks were helped by the announcement by the Financial Services Commission that it intends to raise the limit that non-financial services companies can invest in domestic banks. Shinhan Financial Group jumped 6.68%, Woori Finance climbed 14.08% and Kookmin Financial Group rose 7.87%. Among tech stocks, Hynix Semiconductor gained 9.87% and LG Display rose 4.4%. POSCO surged 5.17% and Hyundai Steel gained 9.74%.

China-A shares closed higher, ending a six-day run of declines. Banks advanced on expectations that Central Huijin, an investment arm of the sovereign wealth fund, will buy more shares in the major banks. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 73.00 points or 3.65% to end at 2073.57.

The Australian stock market closed with the biggest one-day percentage gain since October 1997, led by financial stocks, following the government’s emergency plan to protect the country’s banking system from the global financial meltdown.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a three-point plan over the weekend, which includes guaranteeing bank deposits for three years. The plan will guarantee the borrowings of Australian banks in international credit markets and will extend a program to bolster the mortgage market through the purchase of an additional A$4 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 220.00 points, or 5.5%, to close at 4180.70, while the broader All Ordinaries Index rose 202.40 points, or 5.14%, to settle at 4141.90.

On the economic front, a report released by Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp. showed that advertised job opportunities in Australia declined in September by a seasonally adjusted 1.4% from August.

Among mining stocks, BHP Billiton jumped 8.15% and Rio Tinto climbed 8.71%. In the banking sector, national Australia Bank surged 7.69%, Commonwealth Bank gained 6.7%, Westpac rose 8.96%. ANZ climbed 13.07% after it said it was granted a license to set up a wholly owned bank to be operated out of Hanoi in Vietnam. Shares in financial group Suncorp-Metway lost 2.4% after the company said it was still considering options on a possible sale of its banking and wealth management unit.

Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum declined 1.1%, while Origin Energy gained 5.1% after it announced plans to undertake an A$1.5 billion capital management program on completion of a coal seam gas deal with ConocoPhillips. Nexus Energy tumbled 15% after its managing director was forced to sell 1.5 million shares to meet obligations on a margin-lending facility. The company’s stock was also negatively impacted by Japanese group Mitsui’s decision to abandon it plan to buy a stake in a Nexus oil project in Australia.

The New Zealand stock market gave up gains made in the afternoon trading to close lower. The benchmark NZX 50 Index declined 22.92 points or 0.81% to close at 2,782.39, while the broader NZX All Capital Index shed 25.46 points or 0.89% to settle at 2,831.42.

Prime Minister Helen Clark’s assurance Sunday that the Government will guarantee all savers’ deposits, taking on a liability worth up to NZ$150 billion to reassure local investors spooked by the worsening international crisis, had boosted market sentiment.

In the currency market, the New Zealand dollar failed to sustain early gains against the US dollar and moved lower. In late trades, the kiwi was trading at US$0.5980 compared to Friday’s close of US$0.5930. The kiwi had risen to US$0.6160 in early trading.

Among the market leaders, Telecom lost 3.13%, Fletcher Building eased 0.17% and Contact Energy slid 2.08%. In the banking space, ANZ surged 5.96% and Westpac soared 8.11%. Fisher and Paykel Appliances gained 0.74%.

Other Asian markets:

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 1,515 points or 10.24% to close at 16,312, Singapore’s Straits Times index rose 128 points or 6.57% to settle at 2,076 and India’s BSE 30 Index jumped 804 points or 7.64% to settle at 11,332. Malaysia’s KLSE Composite Index gained 17 points to close at 951 and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index closed at 1,462, up 10 points or 0.70%. However, Taiwan’s weighted index closed down 110 points or 2.15% to settle at 5,020.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, Switzerland, UK, USA.

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