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Asia has best year since 1999

Thailand's stock market posted a stellar performance in 2003.
Thailand's stock market posted a stellar performance in 2003.

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(CNN) -- Thailand has led Asian stock markets to their best performance for four years, with only China's Shanghai B-shares posting a loss for 2003.

Top honors in the region went to Bangkok's SET composite index, which put on a massive 117.3 percent for the year as confidence returned among investors.

India grabbed second spot, the BSE-30 in Mumbai finishing with a gain of 73 percent to 5838.96, within sight of its February 2000 record close of 6150.

Last year's star performer, Pakistan's KSE-100, jumped another 65 percent to finish at 4471.60. Close behind was Indonesia's Jakarta composite, which rose 62.8 percent to end the year at 691.895.

Despite touching a 20-year low of just 7607.88 in April, Japan's Nikkei 225 average ended the year at 10,676.64, up 24.5 percent to post its first gain since 1999.

Hong Kong and Singapore also finished in the black for the first time in four years, with gains of almost 35 percent for the Hang Seng index and 31.6 percent for the Straits Times index.

Among individual blue-chip shares, South Korea's big exporter Hyundai Motor put on 82 percent for the year, Taiwan's chip foundry TSMC rose 61 percent and Singapore Telecommunications finished 58 percent higher.

Shanghai's B-share market disappointed overseas investors with a decline of 7 percent; in contrast, the Shenzhen B-share index put on 45 percent.

Taiwan's Taiex gained 32.3 percent and South Korea's Kospi put on 29.2 percent. Samsung Electronics posted a hefty gain of almost 44 percent as the global tech sector recovered.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 put on just 9.7 percent to 3299.8, but that was still its best gain since 1999. Resources heavyweight BHP Billiton led the way among blue chips with a gain of 20 percent.

In New Zealand, the Top 50 rose 25 percent, with the market's biggest stock, Telecom New Zealand, putting on 18.5 percent.

Toyota on top

Sony shares fell 25 percent in 2003.
Sony shares fell 25 percent in 2003.

Among Japanese blue-chips, Toyota Motor finished with a gain of 13.4 percent and recaptured the mantle of Asia's biggest stock, with a market capitalization of 13.06 trillion yen (about $119 billion).

It edged out mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, which put on 11 percent for the year and ended with a market capitalization of 12.194 trillion yen (about $111 billion).

But consumer electronics leader Sony fell 25 percent for the year and dropped from fourth to 13th place by market cap.

In the tech sector, big gainers included Yahoo Japan, up 289 percent, and Internet investor Softbank, up 142 percent.

UFJ Holdings, one of Japan's big four banks, staged a spectacular recovery in 2003 after the disappointments of recent years, putting on 329 percent to 515,000 yen.

Among other Asian exchanges, Manila's PSE composite rose 41.6 percent and Malaysia's KLSE composite rose almost 23 percent.


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