Amsterdam - Short selling on the Dutch stock exchange will be prohibited for the next three months, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos announced early Monday on Dutch television.

Short selling is when investors sell stock they borrowed from its owners, speculating the stock will lose value. If indeed it does, they can repurchase the same stock cheaper, increasing their profits.

Short selling by investors is believed to have played an important role in the ongoing global credit crisis. The US, Britain and several other countries have also imposed a temporary ban on the practice.

It marks the first time since the global credit crisis began in the summer of 2007 that the Dutch government has actively intervened in Dutch markets.

Manila - Philippine shares climbed by 2.32 per cent on Monday, buoyed by news about the United States government's ambitious plan to revive its ailing financial system.

The Philippine Stock Exchange's 30-share composite index gained 57.34 points to close at 2,520.13 from Friday's close of 2,462.79.

A total of 1.32 billion shares worth 3.09 billion pesos (67.15 dollars) were traded.

Gainers outpaced losers, 73 to 21, with 44 issues unchanged.

Tokyo - Stocks opened higher Monday in Tokyo as the market sentiment was cheered by the US government's 700-billion-dollar bailout plan to clean up bad assets.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 236.04 points, or 1.98 per cent, to 12,156.9.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also rose 25.58 points, or 2.23 per cent, to 1,174.7.

The Bank of Japan pumped 1.5 trillion yen (13.97 billion dollars) into the Tokyo money market Monday.

Sydney - Australian shares l

Washington - The US Federal Reserve Board late Sunday agreed to applications by investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to become bank holding companies.

The rate-setting central bank said in a statement said that the approval was granted, pending a five-day antitrust waiting period.

Sydney - Australia's securities regulator Sunday joined the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland in curbing the short-selling of shares.

In a short sale, a trader sells borrowed stock, hoping to make a profit by buying it back at a cheaper price.

Many argue that short-selling is behind the turmoil in global share markets. They claim hedge funds are deliberately driving down the price of shares in order to make windfall profits when they buy them back.

Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that from Monday a temporary ban on what's called naked short-selling would take effect. In naked short-selling, traders sell shares they don't actually own.