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Asian market highlights:

TOKYO: Shares in Tokyo climbed to a new four-year closing high with a bullish outlook deterring possible sellers despite the market's rapid advance since mid-March. Brokers said they were watching if the broader TOPIX index would breach a high marked last June.

The Nikkei finished up 162.17 points or 0.73 percent at 22,282.05 -- the highest close since 22,381.90 marked on January 10, 1992. Its June futures contract rose 40 to 22,320.

"Facing profit-taking at highs, the current market does not move up straightforwardly. But I must say it's very strong. It just does not go down," said Ryoichi Ohta at Tokyo Securities.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks closed narrowly mixed after spending the day adrift in a band of just 53 points, players said.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index ended up 9.64 points at 10,898.69. Turnover dwindled to HK$3.13 billion (US$404.97 million)from Tuesday's HK$3.88 billion (US$502 million).

"The market has apparently lost all sense of purpose ahead of Monday's April index futures expiry," said Samuel Lau of China Everbright Securities. "It seems to be top heavy at these levels and looks more likely to test support first before it can renew its climb."

BANGKOK: Thai stocks rallied on late bargain hunting focused on the finance sector after the market drifted in a narrow range for most of the session, brokers said.

The SET index finished 9.24 points higher at 1,305.68 on lacklustre 4.63 billion baht turnover. Gainers outnumbered decliners 193 to 125 with 111 unchanged.

"There was late buying in the finance sector," a Union Securities broker said. "Volume was okay, it seems that foreigners were doing some selective buying in the finance sector. Most finance companies were up."

He said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought aggressively with hardly three days for voting to begin in India's parliamentary elections.

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares ended mostly lower as investors booked profits after recent sharp gains, dealers said.

The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's Composite Index ended down 4.44 points to 1,169.44.

Second board shares were among the bigger losers as some speculative money shifted into second line main board shares on rotational play, they said. Second boarders Rohas-Euco, Pembinaan Limbongan, Orlando and Shanghai Chong Kee slid between 90 cents and 3.0 ringgit.

Second liners Granite, Kemayan and Muda gained between eight and 24 cents.

MANILA: Philippine equities ended lower, failing to sustain a two-day uptrend as profit-takers lorded it over most index-linked stocks, brokers said.

"Most of the blue chips came down today ... People are shifting to smaller-cap issues," Bing Trinidad of DBS Securities said.

The composite index pulled back 27.27 points, or 0.91 percent, to close at 2,969.33 in heavy trade.

SEOUL: Stocks soared in late trading, led by institutional interest in high-tech shares, brokers said.

The composite index hit a record closing high for the year, up 16.07 points to a provisional 956.62.

The government's labour reform announcement had no impact on the bourse, brokers said. It pledged to make sweeping changes in labour laws to bring them in line with international standards.

"The focus was on high-tech shares, including telecommunications, because they've been doing well in Japan and the United States," said Kim Young-bum of Seoul Securities.

SHANGHAI: Shanghai's A share index rose 44.131 points, or 6.81 percent, to end at a 1996 high of 692.191 points.

Brokers said the main reason for the rise was because the exchange announced it was cutting trading fees.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange is cutting fees to stimulate trading, the Shanghai Securities News on Wednesday quoted an exchange announcement as saying.

Shanghai's B share index ended down on poor corporate results, brokers said. It fell 0.393 point, or 0.80 percent, to 48.671 on volume of 7.2 million shares worth $2.5 million.

Shanghai Steel Tube became the first Shanghai B share firm to report a 1995 net loss and it said it would pay no dividend as a result. It was the day's second biggest loser, falling $0.006, or 4.76 percent, to $0.120, on volume of 111,700 shares.

SHENZHEN: Shenzhen A share index soared and ended at a record high for 1996 on talk that the Shenzhen government plans to ease credit to local brokerages.

The A share index surged 12.11 points, or 8.60 percent, to end at the year's high of 152.82, brokers said.

The B share index edged up 0.38 point to close at 61.05 while turnover reached HK$5.60 million, compared with HK$3.24 million on Tuesday.

Analysts said overseas investors remained concerned about the still unreleased results of the majority of B share firms listed in south China.

SINGAPORE: Singapore shares closed flat, crawling up from negative territory on last-minute buying in index-linked Keppel Corp and Singapore Press Holdings which rose Singapore S$0.20 each on light volumes.

The key Straits Times Industrials Index ended up 2.45 points at 2,381.18 after ranging between 2,371.99 and 2,388.55.

Property stocks lost more ground after sharp falls on Tuesday on talk of measures to curb speculation in the private residential market and new guidelines issued by the Stock Exchange of Singapore for companies' disclosure of property sales to their directors and related parties.

SYDNEY: Australian shares continued their rally after much better than expected March quarter CPI data on Tuesday. However, the market ended off its highs as option expiries weighed on shares late in the session.

The All Ordinaries index closed 16.3 points higher at 2,316.3, just 7.4 points shy of its 1996 high of 2,323.7 set on March 5. The June share price index closed up 17 points at 2,347 and at a 30.7 point premium to the underlying index.

Brokers said the market tried but failed to break its 1996 high, which would be its highest level since February 1994 when the market set its life time high of 2,350.1.

TAIPEI: Taiwan stocks closed higher on a rebound by the heavily weighted financials after the finance ministry denied reports that it plans to sell its holdings in the three big banks before July, brokers said.

The index ended 1.35 percent or 79.80 points up to 5,986.81. Turnover was T$68.86 billion (US$2.5 billion).

Newspaper reports of a bank selloff plan had plunged the financial sector by over five percent and the overall index by over two percent on Tuesday. But financials recovered by 2.16 percent on Wednesday after a ministry official denied the sale.

WELLINGTON: The New Zealand share market closed mildly higher, in what brokers termed an encouraging performance.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended the session up 6.60 points at 2,141.66. Volume, after a slow start, ended at a solid NZ$43 millon.

"We started off the day with our bond yields going quite a bit higher, and our market held up really well in the face of that," said Tim Koller at Hendry Hay McIntosh.-Reuter