HSI Gains In First Session, Gold Rises Again

Hong Kong went into the break with gains on Wednesday, building on the previous day's advances, following another record lead from Wall Street.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.6 percent, to 25,088.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3 percent, to 3,381 while the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1 percent, to 2,322.

Tokyo was down 0.6 percent while Sydney shed 1 percent and Wellington eased 0.2 percent.

However, there were gains in Seoul, Taipei, Singapore, Manila and Jakarta.

Unease about the progress of US stimulus talks, the ever-weaker US dollar caused by Federal Reserve monetary easing and new flare-ups in virus infections around the world sent gold surging past US$2,000 overnight on Tuesday.

And the yellow metal continued its march in Asian trade, touching a new record of US$2,031.14, with analysts tipping it to continue higher still as investors bet on the long-term view that inflation will surge once the economic and virus crisis has passed. (AFP)

______________________________