MANILA

Shares across the Asia-Pacific region finished the day mixed in thin holiday trade with most markets closed for the Lunar New Year celebrations in Asia, although merger hopes spurred active buying in Tokyo and sent the Nikkei index to new highs in more than six years while a turnaround in sentiment also sent the All Ordinaries in Sydney to a fresh closing high. Tokyo shares ended higher across the board, buoyed by M&A hopes as the fiscal yearend in March approaches and with investors expecting the market to weather a possible 25-basis-point hike in the overnight call rate when the Bank of Japan's policy board meets this week. Widespread hopes for an economic recovery also prompted investors to chase prices higher. The blue-chip Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed up 64.44 points or 0.36 pct at 17,940.09, off a high of 17,974.00. The TOPIX index of all issues listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchanges first section ended the session up 5.43 points, or 0.31 pct, at 1,779.96, off a high of 1,782.58. Daimaru finished up 145 yen or 8.63 pct at 1,825 while Matsuzakaya shot up 100 yen or 10.28 pct to 1,073, its limit-high for the day, after local media reported over the weekend that the two were mulling a merger to cope with declining sales. However, many investors also held back from buying ahead of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy board meeting which starts tomorrow. In Australia, share prices finished higher as investor sentiment bounced back from Friday's profit-taking, sending the All Ordinaries index to a fresh record close. Banks led the market higher, including Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) after it announced a 4.05 aud a share bid for the remaining 65.8 pct of online share-trading firm ETrade Australia that it does not already own. The S&P/ASX 200 ended up 36.4 points or 0.61 pct at 5,990.1, edging closer to Thursday's record close of 5,992.8. The index hit an intraday record high of 6,003.2. The broader All Ordinaries index climbed 33.8 points to a record close of 5,969.3, beating Thursday's previous record close of 5,969.1. The index also set a new intraday record of 5,983.0. ANZ shares rose 0.58 aud to finish at 29.83, Westpac advanced 0.29 to 25.64, National Australia Bank was up 0.31 at 40.85 but Commonwealth Bank lost 0.30 to 50.90 after trading ex-dividend. Shares in New Zealand closed 0.96 pct lower as the recent flood of company reports slowed to a trickle, giving investors a chance to pause. The benchmark NZX-50 index ended 39.67 points lower at 4,140.22 on light value turnover of 99.06 mln nzd. Among the top three stocks here, Telecom fell 0.11 nzd to 4.96, Fletcher Building was steady at 10.92 and Contact Energy shed 0.17 to 8.65. In Manila, shares ended mixed as some investors locked in recent gains on select stocks like Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT), while others picked up small caps. Most investors took to the sidelines pending more positive trading leads and with many key markets in Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, shut today and tomorrow for the Lunar New Year holidays. The 30-company main index finished down 4.53 points at 3,329.03, after moving between 3,318.09 and 3,356.70. The broader all-share index rose 1.84 points to 2,110.71.