UPDATE: Asian Shares Rise Amid Japan Holiday, But ANZ Drops

UPDATE: Asian Shares Rise Amid Japan Holiday, But ANZ Drops

(Adds information, quotes, updates/adds market levels)

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian share markets were broadly higher Wednesday as investors started to look past the swine flu headlines. Trade was subdued amid a Japanese holiday, and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group fell after its first half net profit dropped 28%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3% with South Korea's Kospi Composite up 1.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.6% higher. U.S. stock futures were up a tad.

Better-than-expected U.S. consumer data helped support Wall Street late Tuesday, with indexes ending only mildly lower.

But "despite this late flurry, markets remain jittery and with the (swine) flu outbreak set to worsen, it is going to be developments here that will result in shares being kept under pressure," said David Jones, Chief Market Strategist at IG Index.

The New Zealand health ministry confirmed that students who recently returned from Mexico had been infected with swine flu. Australia was testing 91 people for the flu and had introduced new powers to isolate and detain suspected sufferers.

"The market seems a bit lost at the moment," said Macquarie Private Wealth associate director David Halliday. "It's been a bit schizophrenic lately on the swine flu and stress test news." But he said the markets would rise in the absence of significantly worse news. "A lot of bears might get exhausted by the fact the market's not having a pullback."

Other analysts noted Wall Street had shown some resilience to bad news of late. Southern Cross Equities Director Charlie Aitken said "markets need to (move) to the upside to suck in all the non-believers and shorters."

Taiwan's main stock index was 0.3% higher, New Zealand's NZX-50 flat, Singapore's Straits Times index up 0.7%, Malaysia's benchmark index down 0.1%, the Philippines' main index 0.2% higher and Indonesian shares up 0.7%. The Shanghai Composite index had gained 0.3%.

In Australia, ANZ slumped 6.3% after its first half report, hit by escalating charges for bad loans. It added the outlook for bad loans remained difficult going into the second half and extending into 2010, forcing it to scrap its previous guidance on provisions.

Other bank stocks were weak in Sydney, with National Australia Bank down 4.1% and Bank of Queensland falling 4.3%.

Miners were lower in Australia on falls in base metal prices, with Newcrest off 1.9% and Rio Tinto slipping 1.4%. Fortescue was down 3.7% after the iron ore miner cut its annual production guidance by 15%.

Patersons head of Sydney retail trading, Chris Blair, said traders in Sydney were awaiting results from other big Australian banks, and the commentary from the Federal Open Market Committee after its meeting Wednesday. "We're not going to do anything unless Wall Street rallies."

Hong Kong stocks were staging a rebound after a two-day selloff. Sinopec was 2.9% higher and Bank of Communications was up 3.1%, after both posted strong first quarter results, while carrier Cathay Pacific rebounded 1.4% after heavy selling earlier this week.

Bank and technology stocks were higher in Korea after falls on Tuesday, with Shinhan Financial up 2.3% and Samsung Electronics up 0.7%. Korean Air bounced from its weaker open and was up 1.5%.

In China, car makers were boosted by talk Beijing may further cut taxes on auto purchases, in a bid to lift demand. SAIC Motor was up 5.7% and Chongqing Changan Automobile added 3.8%.

Currency markets were quiet with Japan closed, though the yen slipped after its recent gains. The U.S. dollar was at Y96.78, from Y96.40 late in New York, and the euro at Y127.38, vs Y126.70, while the single currency was hovering near $1.3146.

Sue Trinh, a strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said the dollar's gains against the yen were linked to short-covering. She noted that attempts to drive the dollar-yen pair lower had lost steam with "zero follow through," forcing positions to be squared.

Spot gold was down $2.90 from New York, at $890.40 a troy ounce, in a choppy market.

LME three-month copper was at $4,192 a metric ton, up $7 from London levels after falling 3.6% there. "The base metals rally in the last few weeks was based on a lessening of pessimism, and that has run out of steam. There's now a more considered view," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst David Moore.

June Nymex crude oil futures were 64 cents lower at $49.28 a barrel on Globex, after falling 22 cents in New York.

-Rosalind Mathieson and Colin Ng, Dow Jones Newswires; +65-6415-4140; rosalind.mathieson@dowjones.com

TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at TalkbackAsia@dowjones.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=CLItfMniXs%2FuJm6pSILWuQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2009 23:07 ET (03:07 GMT)