Madrid - Spain's stock market watchdog CNMV on Friday suspended trade in stocks of the oil company Repsol amid reports that Russian oil giant Lukoil was about to acquire nearly 30 per cent of Repsol.

The CNMV also suspended the stocks of Criteria, a holding of La Caixa bank, which admitted to being in talks with Lukoil about selling all or part of its 12.5-per-cent stake in Repsol to the Russian company.

Lukoil was also reported to be in talks with the construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso, which holds a 20-per-cent stake in Repsol.

Sacyr stocks rose by nearly 14 per cent after trading opened, on top of a 13-per-cent surge on Thursday. Repsol and Criteria shares dropped by more than 2 per cent.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares staged an impressive rebound to close nearly 3 per cent higher Friday after falling by 3 per cent in the first half hour of business.

At one stage, the Hang Seng Index had jumped by nearly 1,000 points from its morning low to post a 4.5 per cent gain before tailing off slightly in afternoon trading.

The blue-chip index ended the day up 360.64 points or 2.93 per cent to end another turbulent week at 12,659.20 points. Turnover was a weak 50.4 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.5 billion US dollars).

Seoul - Shares jump

New Delhi - Indian equities climbed over 4 per cent in morning trade on Friday, recovering some losses from trading sessions in the last few days.

The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange, which has fallen more than 2,000 points over the last seven trading sessions, gained 358.43 points to 8,810 levels, up 4.24 per cent at 11:50 am (0620 GMT).

All sectoral indices on the barometer index recorded gains. Similarly, the broader 50-share Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange rose by 105.75 points to 2,658.90, or an increase of 4.14 per cent.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks snapped its losing streak to close Friday trading higher as investors bought back battered shares.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 207.75 points, or 2.7 per cent, to close at 7,910.79.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 20.41 points, or 2.57 per cent, to 802.69.

The Tokyo market lost more than 2 per cent in morning trading due to stronger yen and Wall Street's overnight plunges, but it erased early losses in the afternoon session with bargain-hunting.

Manila - Philippine share prices plummeted for the second straight session on Friday, closing 4.14 per cent lower on overnight losses in Wall Street.

The 30-share composite index of the Philippine Stock Exchange lost 76.43 points to close at 1,765.90. On Thursday, the index declined
3.45 per cent to finish at 1,842.33.

A total of 820.15 million shares worth 1.16 billion pesos (23.38 million dollars) were traded.

Losers swamped gainers 79 to 11, while 34 issues were unchanged.