New York  - US stocks made small gains on Friday, led by energy and metals companies, but were held down by ongoing fears about the future of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Hurricane Ike's anticipated arrival on the US mainland drove up petrol prices, helping refiners make strong gains.

The price of copper surged while gold ended a nine-day string of losses. Shares in metals giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc jumped more than 8 per cent.

Amman- Arab stocks plunged across the board this week amid sell-offs particularly by foreign funds that reflected receding investors' confidence and concerns resulting from falling oil prices, financial analysts said Friday.

"I believe dumping of stocks by foreign funds has created a negative sentiment at regional markets that prompted panic sell- offs," Wajdi Makhamreh, Chief Operating Officer at the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Seoul - Share

Singapore - Thai Beverage and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings will be dropped from the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) starting September 22, the Singapore Exchange said on Friday.

Extremely low trading volumes were cited for Thai Beverage and plunging market capitalization for Yangzijiang.

They are to be replaced by plantation firm Golden Agri-Resources and Jardine Matheson Holdings, which owns properties across Asia.

The changes follow a six-month review of the index.

After opening with a gain of 107.79 points at 14,432.08, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex went down on account of heavy selling action witnessed in IT, real estate and banking stocks.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap lost 0.73% and 0.41% respectively.

On Thursday (Sep 11), the Sensex marked its closure after losing 338.32 points, whereas the NSE Nifty fell by 109.95 points.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks rebounded Friday after overnight gains on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 128.49 points, or 1.06 per cent, in morning trading to 12,230.99.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 12.44 points, or 1.06 per cent, at 1,175.16.

Investors in Tokyo and New York were cheered by takeover speculation about embattled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, which helped lift concern about financial markets.