Asian stocks mostly advance

Strong overnight cues continue to lift regional benchmarks

Asian stocks mostly advanced on continued buying support as strong overnight cues from the US markets pepped up the sentiments and gains in banking and financials lifted the benchmarks in the region. US stocks surged yesterday, helped by news February 2009 housing starts increased 22.2% to a seasonally adjusted 5,83,000 annual rate compared to the prior month, after plunging 14.5% in January 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5%, its fifth gain in six sessions and its highest close since 19 February 2009.

Japanese stock index Nikkei endured gains for fourth consecutive day on broad based gain in the shares of financials, real estate, and energy issues after the central bank announced a move to boost lenders' capital.

The Japanese stock market opened higher and optimism that government stimulus measures and central bank policies would pump life into the world's second-largest economy spurred the sentiments further. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average index spurted 23.04 points, or 0.3%, to 7,972.17, while the broader Topix added 4.03 points, or 0.5%, to 765.

China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.2%, South Korea's Kospi added 0.5%, Taiwan's Taiex edged up 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.9%, with the latter led again by a surge in market heavyweight HSBC Holdings

However, Aussie stocks slipped from a one-month high as traders booked profts in the mining and energy stocks. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index defied the broad regional trend after hefty gains Tuesday, to finish down 0.2% at 3,446.30.

In other markets, Malaysia's main index rose 0.7% and Philippine shares gained 0.6%, while New Zealand's NZX-50 ended up 1.6%.

India's Sensex shed its initial gains and dipped below 9k mark in the closing hours. The BSE 30-share Sensex provisionally rose 113.92 points, or 1.29%, off close to 140 points from the day's high. The steep slide in the second half of the trade came after the market surged to its hit highest level in more than a month in afternoon trade.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices slipped ahead of the US weekly inventories data as traders booked profits after the recent surge. The light, sweet crude oil for April futures slipped 86 cents to 48.90 per barrel in the London trades.