Sydney - The era of cheap debt that powered Macquarie Bank Ltd to becoming Australia's most admired and most profitable financial institution is over.

Shareholders were hoping Friday that a share-price rebound signalled it was not also game over for the nation's biggest home-grown investment bank.

There was hectic buying of a counter wallowing at a five-year low.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks bounced back in morning trading Friday as the Wall Street surged overnight on news about the US government's plan to create an entity to dispose of bad loans.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged 378.9 points, or 3.3 per cent, to 11,868.2.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also rose 42.44 points, or 3.87 per cent, to 1,140.12.

Sydney - Austral

New York  - US stocks posted significant gains on Thursday, the latest swing in a topsy-turvy week on Wall Street amid a burgeoning financial crisis and massive government interventions aimed at preventing wider economic fallout.

The markets appeared to be buoyed by talk of a more permanent solution to the financial turmoil after US legislators indicated a willingness to create a new government agency that would take on the bad loans of struggling banking firms.

Mumbai/New Delhi, Sept 18 : The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex rebounded from sharp early losses on Thursday and snapped a seven-day losing streak, as domestic funds stepped in to pick bargains with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram ruling out negative impact of Lehman bankruptcy but the outlook remained shaky on deepening global financial woes.

Frankfurt  - German bank Commerzbank affirmed Thursday its plans to take over Dresdner Bank, rejecting speculation that earlier hit the Commerzbank share price.

Insurance group Allianz, the current owner of Dresdner, also said the deal was still intact.

"There has been no change to the plan," an Allianz spokeswoman told the dpa-AFX financial news wire in Germany. A Commerzbank spokesman said the merger would proceed "as planned."

Allianz stock was trading at 92.35 euros, down 2.4 per cent, just after noon on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Commerzbank bounced back from the morning speculation, trading at 14.17 euros, up 5.1 per cent.