Most Asian markets rose Wednesday as heavy buying in oil companies led Chinese and Hong Kong stocks higher after recent losses. Japanese shares, meanwhile, dropped for a fifth day on inflation fears, ap reported. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 3.6 percent to 2,905.01. Hong Kong's shares rose in tandem, with the blue-chip Hang Seng Index ending 0.8 percent higher at 22,635.16. Stocks in Singapore, South Korea and India were among the region's gainers. The advance followed an erratic session on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent on worries over the impact high fuel costs would have an companies and consumers. Oil prices hovered around US$136.96 a barrel midday in Asian, off only slightly from Tuesday trade. With prices steady, Chines refiners gained pending the release of U.S. government fuel stocks data, expected later Wednesday. Shanghai heavyweight PetroChina rose 2.9 percent while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, gained 2.7 percent. Financials and property firms advanced following a report in the China Securities News that major institutional investor China Life Insurance was investing heavily in mutual funds. Property developer China Vanke gained 3.5 percent and Poly Real Estate Group climbed 5.7 percent. Baoshan Iron & Steel jumped 5.9 percent, rebounding a 7.8 percent decline the day before on possible concern its profits would be dented by sharply higher costs after the company agreed to nearly double prices paid to iron ore supplier Rio Tinto. In Hong Kong, CNOOC helped lead Wednesday's gains as the upstream oil producer rose 3.4 percent. Telecom stocks were also up. China Netcom climbed 3.1 percent, while its potential owner, China Unicom, rose more than 2.5 percent. Mobile phone maker Foxconn International Holdings, dragged down more than 5 percent Tuesday on worries about its customer Motorola, regained 3.7 percent. Analysts, though, said Hong Kong's rebound was mostly technical and expected more selling in coming days due to ongoing concerns about the global economy. «There's still a lot of people worried,» said Ernie Hon, an analyst from ICEA Securities. Japanese stocks were pressured by lingering fears over inflation and a slowdown in the global economy. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.14 percent to 13,829.92. Investors stayed on the sidelines, awaiting the outcome of a two-day rate setting meeting by the Federal Reserve later in the day. Traders expect the U.S. central bank to hold its key interest rate at 2 percent. «Investors are keen on what the Fed will say about inflation and the economy after the meeting,» said Masatoshi Sato, strategist at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. Ltd. Toyota Motor Corp. fell 1.3 percent. Japan's top automaker said Tuesday it might scale back its ambitious target of selling more vehicles in the United States this year than it did in 2007 due to a slump in consumer demand. Its rival Nissan Motor Co. edged up 0.2 percent. During a shareholders' meeting Wednesday, Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn vowed that the company would continue to grow in the years ahead by expanding in emerging markets such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. Sony Corp. declined 1.6 percent. Japan's financial giant Mizuho Financial Group Inc. dropped 3 percent to 523,000 yen. Elsewhere, India's benchmark Sensex Index was up 0.8 percent. In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed almost 1 percent lower after heavy selling in BHP Billito and other mining stocks. In currency trading, the dollar stood at 107.85 yen mid-afternoon in Tokyo, little moved from 107.82 yen in New York late Tuesday. The euro stood at US$1.5568 mid-afternoon in Tokyo compared with US$1.5572 in New York. The greenback stood at 1.3677 Singapore dollars and 33.3 Thai baht.
