Mumbai, Tokyo,
Nov 5 : Asian shares opened at a three-week high and the dollar
extended gains on Wednesday as Barack Obama became the next U.S.
president, ending uncertainty about who will lead the world''s largest
economy in the midst of great financial peril.

Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE)''s Sensitive Index or Sensex turned negative after
having been up nearly three per cent earlier in the day, as investors
locked in some gains after the market had risen more than 40 per cent
from a three-year low hit last week.

The Nikkei average gained 3.2 per cent buoyed by exporters such as Honda Motor Co. on a softer yen and after U.S. stocks rose in the biggest election day rally ever.

But
Asian stocks pared gains with analysts saying a victory for Obama had
been largely priced in after recent rises and concerns about the health
of the global economy still paramount.

Sunil Shah, an Indian stock analyst said that for India, the fundamentals still remain unchanged and there is a liquidity problem which needs to be addressed.

“As
far as India is concerned, we are grappling with the situation, the
Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) money is going out of the country
and before we  ...once it stops, then we will see
stability and sanity returning to the market as we have witnessed that
its been a FII play rather than a fundamentalist play because Indian
markets, currently also is available very cheap as far as valuations
are concerned, ten year low, so I think, attractively poised, the
situation hasn''t changed post the elections of the US president in the
US but we are still having this liquidity problem , it has to be seen,
nothing has changed,” said Shah.

The
new Obama administration, which takes office in January, will face the
world''s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a
potentially steep slowdown in global growth that has pounded markets
from Tokyo to Frankfurt to New York.

But
some also urged caution despite unprecedented measures to rescue banks
across the world, aggressive rate cuts by central banks, and the
improvements in credit markets that have in the last week given global
markets a respite from a thrashing.

Most of the Asian stocks extended gains after U.S. stocks on Tuesday enjoyed their biggest election day rally ever. (ANI)