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HONG KONG, CHINA - Asian stocks closed mostly up Wednesday with Chinese stocks surging amid speculation Beijing will try to boost share prices following a plunge since last year.
The Chinese bourse closed 5.24 percent higher amid market talk that the authorities would step in to shore up share prices with the key Shanghai index languishing below the psychologically significant 3,000 level.
The index has tumbled nearly 20 percent since the start of the month, continuing a deep plunge that began last year.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japanese shares ended 0.73 percent higher despite a fall on Wall Street on Tuesday. Concern about inflation and the struggling American housing market had weighed on US share prices.
Hong Kong and South Korea closed up more than one percent, while Australia, Taiwan and Singapore also ended in the black. But India tumbled nearly two percent.
Among smaller markets, Thailand and Malaysia both slid over one percent, partly on concerns about domestic political instability.
Investors were waiting for quarterly results from US investment bank Morgan Stanley due Wednesday for clues about the global credit squeeze, triggered after a mortgage default crisis in the US.
Worries about inflation amid surging oil and food prices, and slowing economic growth, also continued to play on the minds of investors. --AFP
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