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Asian markets soar on Fed
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July 1, 1999: 10:18 a.m. ET
Nikkei jumps 1.9% to near 18,000 as Singapore hits new record
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LONDON LONDON (CNNfn) - Asian investors expressed a collective sigh of relief Thursday after the modest quarter-point hike in U.S. interest rates sparked an across-the-board rally.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped 331 points or 1.9 percent to close at 17,860.75, just shy of the psychologically-important 18,000 level, having climbed as high as 17, 972.
With Hong Kong closed for a holiday, Singapore's Straits Times index kept up the momentum, adding 52 points or 2.41 percent to close at a record high of 2,220.01.
In Sydney, the All Ordinaries closed up 1.1 percent at 3,002.7, but it was South Korea's Kospi which provided the star performance, jumping 4.2 percent to 919.98.
Asian investors took their lead from a rebound on Wall Street where the Dow Jones industrial average rebounded from a morning deficit to close up 155 points or 1.4 percent at 1,970.80. The tech-heavy Nasdaq shared the relief at the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to opt for a 25 basis point rise in interest rates.
Tokyo was lifted by a leap in blue chips across the board, with telecom giant NTT closing up 5.67 percent as investors greeted its switch to a new holding company structure and Merrill Lynch revised upwards its profit forecast for the company.
NTT Docomo, a separately-listed cellular arm, gained 7.32 percent and NTT Data added 8.1 percent after acquiring a 60 percent stake in Mediabank, a Net-based financial service, from Softbank, whose own shares leapt by 5.6 percent.
Electronics manufacturer TDK added 4.7 percent and biotech leader Takara Shuzo soared 10.13 percent to hit its technical ceiling amid reports that the government will double its biotech budget.
Singapore was driven up by high liquidity, with banking and property stocks leading the risers. City Development led the charge with a 6.4 percent jump.
In Seoul, Samsung boosted the index by deciding to seek court protection for its auto manufacturing unit, rather than sell the business to Daewoo.
Australian stocks were boosted by a surging mining sector, with recent announcements of capacity cutbacks boosting the gold sub-index by 7 percent. A rise in copper prices also helped mining stocks, with BHP gaining 2.8 percent and copper specialist MIM adding 9.3 percent.
Publisher John Fairfax soared 7 percent on talk it may list its Internet assets.
In addition to Hong Kong, other markets to miss out on the fun were Taiwan and Thailand, both of which were closed for public holidays.
In Kuala Lumpur Thursday stocks closed up 3 percent, Philippine shares rose 2.3 percent and Indonesian stocks rose a relatively meager 0.7 percent.
-- from staff and wire reports
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