Higher crude oil and metal prices help Asian markets advance (MarketWatch)  (28-03-2008)

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets rose on Friday along with crude-oil and metals prices.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average jumped 1.6% to 12,810.97, reversing direction after dropping as low as 12,507.68 earlier in the day.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 1.8% to 23,061.55, while China's Shanghai Composite soared 2.6% to 3,499.17, after sinking more than 5% in the previous session.

Shares of PetroChina soared 3.5% in Hong Kong and 3.6% in Shanghai trading.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 which fell sharply earlier in the day, pared most of those losses on the back of mining stocks. The index was recently down 0.4% at 5,348.40.

South Korea's Kospi rose 1.3% to 1,697.28, New Zealand's NZX 50 index rose 0.9% to 3,435.82, Singapore's Straits Times index added 0.7% to 3,047.37 and Taiwan's Weighted index gained 0.3% to 8,631.74.

Financial stocks also recovered some of their steep early declines after Australia & New Zealand Banking Group said Friday it doesn't expect a material loss from its exposure to financial services group Opes Prime Group, which has been put into receivership, according to reports.

In Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ gained 1.02%, Mizuho added 1.58%, while Sumitomo declined by 0.57%

 Source:MarketWatch