Asian equities end mostly higher

Steady buying activity seen in financials, miners and other resource stocks

Asian equities ended mostly on bullish note, with stocks in Australia, Japan and South Korea gaining for fifth day in a row as the awesome gains in the last week continued to built up on steady buying activity in financials, miners and other resource stocks. The markets also factored in the positive comments from the US Fed Chairman and the growing signs that the global financials are likely to perform in a better manner in the first quarter of 2009.

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke said that the recession would probably end sometime this year, if the government succeeds in supporting the financial system. This pulled the US markets sharply up in intraday moves before a flurry of sell off ahead of the weekends made the DOW end on a flat note.

Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 also vowed to work together to clean up the toxic assets that helped trigger the financial crisis and led banks to rack up more than $1 trillion in losses. Officials meeting near London this weekend outlined guidelines on how governments should rid banks of distressed securities that have devastated companies from

In Australians, the All Ordinaries rose nearly 3% as miners rode the bullish momentum. Among major miners, BHP Billiton was up 2.9% and Lihir Gold added 2.4% in Sydney,

Japan's Nikkei 225 Average rose for a third straight session, by 3.2%, to end at 7949.13, its highest level in more than a month. The bank of Japan started its two day monetary policy meeting today.

South Korea's Kospi Composite jumped 3.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 3.1%, Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.4% and China's Shanghai Composite added 3%. New Zealand's NZX 50 rose 0.8%.

However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 0.8% to snap out of a five-session rally, with investors locking in profits in late afternoon trading. India's sensex ended lower by 0.90% with Philippine shares down 0.6% and Indonesian shares lower by 0.5%.

Crude oil rebounded after early losses in Asia today. Light, sweet crude oil for April futures jumped from a low of $46.53 per barrel to trade at $47.61, up 26 cents from the previous close.