Manila - Philippine share prices surged 4.69 per cent on Friday, buoyed by the US government's plan to rescue troubled financial institutions.

The 30-share composite index of the Philippine Stock Exchange gained 110.42 points to close at 2,462.79 from Thursday's finish of 2,352.37.

Gainers led losers 99 to 19, while 29 stocks were unchanged.

A total of 1.03 billion shares worth 3.095 billion pesos (66.274 million dollars) were traded.

The Sensex, which continued to trade in the positive terrain since morning, has crossed the mark of 14,000 on the back of sustained buying action witnessed in Realty, IT, power, oil & gas, banking and metal stocks. 

Midcap and smallcap index surged more than 2% each.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex, which gained 448.23 points during the opening time, ended positively on Thursday (Sep 18) after making a gain of 52.70 points, while the NSE Nifty climbed by 29.90 points. 

MCX has got nod from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for futures trading in currency. 

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) promoter Financial Technologies said. “MCX has received SEBI's approval for its subsidiary 'MCX Stock Exchange Ltd', which had applied for currency derivatives.” 

At present, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is offering trading in currency derivatives. 

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex ended with marginal gains on Thursday (Sep 18) after Finance Minister P Chidambaram declared that the Indian banking industry was unaffected by the US crisis. 

After losing 550 points in the beginning, bulls took charge during the second half as worldwide markets regained after central banks across the world joined hands to defend against a credit crunch and injected funds into the economy. 

Finally, the Sensex ended the day at 13,315.60, up 53 points, whereas the wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed at 4038 points, up by 0.75 per cent. 

Wellington - New Zealand's central bank moved Friday to reassure the public that the local banking system was sound despite turbulence in the United States and global financial markets.

"While New Zealand will inevitably feel the effects of major financial shocks such as this, New Zealand banks are not involved in the sort of complex financial transactions that have caused significant losses in many of the large global institutions," Alan Bollard, governor of the Reserve Bank said in a statement.