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.

Bangkok  - The Thai stock market staged a sudden rebound Thursday after falling 5.08 per cent by the midday break, apparently inspired by a similar resurgence on the Hong Kong market.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index was at 574.42 points when trading ended for the midday break, or 5.08 per cent, but it ended the day at 600.38, down 4.76 points or 0.8 per cent.

"Everyone is confused about what happened," said Mongkol Phuangphaetha, a stock analyst at Adkinsons Securities. "Brokers were advising people to sell all morning and then suddenly Hong Kong staged a rebound and local investors followed their lead."

Taipei - Taiwan stocks plunged 2.73 per cent Thursday amid heavy
selling triggered by US financial turmoil and Wall Street's sharp fall
overnight, dealers said.

The Weighted Price Index of Taiwan Stock Exchange opened down 4.19
per cent as jittery investors dumped their holdings, but government
funds soon moved in to buy heavily to ease the sliding trend, allowing
the index to close at 5,641.95 points, down 158.92 points, or 2.73 per
cent, dealers said.

In mid-morning amid heavy sell-offs, Finance Minister Lee Sush-der