(RTTNews) - Financials witnessed good buying. ANZ rose 1.23%, National Australia Bank edged up 0.39% after it agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Calibre Asset Management and Macquarie Group added 0.21%.Insurer QBE Group rose 2.54%. However, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac ended in the red.
Big miner BHP Billiton rose 0.25% after UBS upped its profit forecast, while its rival Rio Tinto ended down 1.09%. Gold miner Newcrest Mining and Lihir Gold showed sharp gains. In the energy sector, Santos fell 1.57% despite the price of crude oil rallying in Asian trade. Agri-giant AWB shed 0.40% on reporting its first annual loss in at least nine years.
The New Zealand market ended down for a second straight day, as investors braced for a wave of new share sales. The benchmark NZX-50 closed at 3,128, down 3 points or 0.10%.
Recently-listed Kathmandu Holdings fell over 3% towards its initial public offering price. Power firm Contact Energy declined 0.67% after it said power generation fell 13 percent in October on low inflows.
Building materials and construction firm Fletcher Building fell 0.75%, Sky Network fell 3.64% and Fisher & Paykel Appliances declined 3.08% while heavyweight Telecom rose 1.59% and Infratil, which reported a half year loss $31.4 million, closed unchanged.
The Chinese market closed higher for the fourth straight session, led by energy stocks on expectations for an imminent price hike . Shaanxi Provincial Natural Gas and Changchun Gas rallied by 10% each. The benchmark Shanghai Composite, which tracks both A and B shares, touched a three-month high of 3,316 before closing at 3,303, up 20 points or 0.62%. However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended down 0.32% at 22,840, dragged down by declines in HSBC and other banking stocks on profit taking.
The Indian market is moving in a tight range on Wednesday amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Currently, the BSE Sensex is trading at 17,011, down 39 points and the S&P CNX Nifty is at 5,057, down 0.10%. However, second-line stocks are receiving good buying support.
On Wall Street, the major averages reversed early losses to end near their best levels of the day on Tuesday. With the release of benign economic indicators prompting many traders to remain on the sidelines, the Dow ended up by a modest 0.29% to close at a new one-year high, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.27% and the S&P added 0.09%. The Dow futures are currently up by 4 points.
