Asian shares higher

Asian markets were mostly higher on Monday as optimism about the
upcoming third quarter reporting season helped investors brush off a
weak lead from Wall Street at the end of last week. The region was
also given a boost after South Korea revealed above-forecast growth
figures for the third quarter, leading to hopes other economies will
follow suit. Tokyo added 0.77 percent, Seoul one percent and
Shanghai was flat. Hong Kong and Wellington were closed for public
holidays. TOKYO: Up 0.77 percent. The Nikkei-225 rose 79. 63 points
to 10 , 362.62. SYDNEY: Down 0.60 percent. The SP/ASX200 fell 29.1
points to 4 ,830.3. SHANGHAI: Flat. The Shanghai Composite Index,
which covers both A and B shares, was up 1.72 points or 0.06 percent
to 3 , 109.57. SEOUL: Up 1.03 percent. The KOSPI ended up 16. 94
points at 1 , 657.11. TAIPEI: Up 0.25 percent. The weighted index
rose 19.12 points to 7 , 668.40. SINGAPORE: Flat. The Straits Times
Index gained 1.28 points or 0.05 percent to 2 , 716.62. BANGKOK: Up
0.43 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand rose 3.07 points to
close at 711.83. JAKARTA: Flat. The Jakarta Composite Index edged
down 0.24 points or 0.01 percent to 2 , 467.71. Telkom fell 1.7
percent to 8 ,500 rupiah, Bank Rakyat lost 1.3 percent to 7 ,500
and car distributor Astra rose 1.4 percent to 33 ,100. MANILA: Up
0.29 percent. The composite index added 8.54 points to 2 , 941.53.
MUMBAI: Down 0.42 percent. The 30- share Sensex fell 70.31 points
to 16 ,740.5.