WRAP Asian stock markets higher following Wall Street gains

(27 Mar 2009) SHOTLIST Tokyo, Japan 1. Wide of Tokyo Stock Exchange, tilt down to trading floor 2. Various of traders 3. Wide of electronic stock board 4. Various of board 5. Wide of stock exchange lobby Hong Kong 6. Wide of Hong Kong Stock Exchange trading floor 7. Wide of traders 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Benjamin Pedley, Managing director, LGT Investment Management (Asia) Ltd: "Well the market has been basically swinging from positive to negative territory throughout the early session, the main gainer have definitely been the banking sectors, Bank of East Asia, Bank of Communication, HSBC, all up marginally. And I think it's this is on going optimism that perhaps the US bank rescue plan unveiled by Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary early this week, may do the job in the near term of getting banks lending again in the US and in term reinvigorating bank earnings globally. The main losers today, however have been exporters, because we had some terrible numbers out of Hong Kong in the last 24 hours that showed the biggest drop in exports since 1954." 9. Wide of traders 10. Wide of trading floor STORYLINE: Asian stock markets opened higher on Friday following gains on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei stock index ended morning trade higher by 83.22 points, or 0.96 percent. In Hong Kong, stocks also rose in early trading to 148.58 points, or 1.05 percent, to open at 14,257.56 on Friday. Asian markets climbed higher following the United States' announcement of tightening financial regulation. Investors across the world are keeping a close eye on the results of US government debt auctions to make sure the administration will be able to finance its massive economic stimulus and financial bailout programmes. The Obama administration is proposing an extensive overhaul of financial regulations in an effort to prevent a repeat of the banking crisis last autumn that toppled once-mighty institutions and wiped out trillions of dollars in investor wealth. Hong Kong analyst Benjamin Pedley expressed optimism on Friday that the White House plans would have a positive effect "reinvigorating bank earnings globally" especially in the short term. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...