HONG KONG, Jan 28: Asian stocks rose on Wednesday as investors reacted to another modest rise on Wall Street and on hopes that the corporate earnings season will not be as bad as first thought.

Tokyo edged up 0.56 per cent, a day after soaring almost five per cent, while Sydney put on 1.5 per cent on top of the three per cent gain Tuesday.

Seoul, which was closed for the first two days of the week for the Lunar New Year holiday, rocketed almost six per cent.

Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei remained closed for the holiday.

Singapore also jumped after a two-day break, adding 4.8 per cent.

TOKYO: Up 0.56 per cent. The Nikkei rose 45.22 points to 8,106.29.

But the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s broader Topix index of all first-section shares ended slightly in negative territory, falling 1.16 points or 0.14 per cent to 804.33.

Elpida Memory surged 9.1 per cent to 609 yen on hopes market oversupply will ease after German rival Qimonda filed for bankruptcy protection.

The market also benefited from a weaker yen, which makes Japanese exports more competitive.

SYDNEY: Up 1.5 per cent. The S&P/ASX200 rose 51.5 points to 3,495.5, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 42.8 points at 3,435.1.

A total of 1.02 billion shares worth 3.72 billion dollars (2.45 billion US) was traded.

It was a good day overall. Mainly driven by the financial sector and Woolworths, said CMC Markets dealer Dominic Vaughan

SINGAPORE: Up 4.80 per cent. The blue-chip Straits Times Index (STI) rose 80.85 points to 1,766.08 on thin volume of 646 million shares worth 778 million Singapore dollars (518 million US).

United Overseas Bank gained 66 cents to 12.20, DBS closed 61 cents higher at 8.99 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp added 25 cents to 5.17.

City Developments jumped 42 cents to 5.93 and CapitaLand rose 13 cents to 2.49.

KUALA LUMPUR: Up 0.8 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 6.94 points to close at 879.63.

IOI Corp gained 1.6 per cent to 3.74 ringgit, Sime Darby rose 2.8 per cent to 5.50 ringgit and DiGi.com edged up 1.0 per cent to 20.90 ringgit.

JAKARTA: Down 1.1 per cent. The Jakarta Composite Index fell 15.18 points to 1,321.45 in thin trade.

Coal miner Bumi Resources rose 3.1 per cent to 510 rupiah on bargain buying.

WELLINGTON: Up 0.44 per cent. The NZX-50 index gained 12.04 points to 2,747.90 on turnover worth 113.41 million dollars (59.06 million US).

Telecom, which had slumped as low as 2.25 dollars at the end of last year, rose three cents to 2.60.

Auckland Airport was four cents up at 1.88.

Contact Energy ended eight cents ahead at 6.78 and Sky TV rose 10 cents to 4.05.

MUMBAI: Up 2.81 per cent. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index rose 253.39 points to 9,257.47.—AFP