Paris - Buoyed by a strong Wall Street showing and the French government's announcment on a capital injection for its banks, shares in Paris were up sharply in early trading on Tuesday.

One hour after opening, the benchmark CAC 40 gained 2.56 per cent, to 3,536.76, with gainers outnumbering decliners by nearly 6 to 1.

Banking stocks led the surge after the French government announced late Monday that it would inject 10.5 billion euros (14 billion dollars) into the country's six-largest financial institutions by the end of the year.

Seoul - Shares plunged Tuesday on the Seoul stock exchange on concerns over the economy despite a government stabilization package worth 130 billion dollars to prop up the troubled financial market. South Korea's currency dropped against the US dollar.

The benchmark Kospi index fell 11.53 points, or 1 per cent, to close at 1,196.1.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 496 to 325.

The main index of the technology-heavy Kosdaq market declined 2.12 points to 350.97.

Wellington - The index of New Zealand's top 50 stocks rose 2.1 per cent Tuesday amid cautious gains in other Asia-Pacific stock markets.

The NZX 50 index looked set for an even better performance after morning trading saw it up 2.8 per cent after rising 3 per cent on Monday.

But the price of the biggest stock, Telecom New Zealand, suffered a reverse in the afternoon, and the index ended the day up 62 points to 2952.

It has been a splendid session for stocks thus far. Indian equities have moved up sharply due to continued buying action witnessed across board.

Both Sensex and Nifty have recorded thumping gains. Realty, consumer durables, IT, power and oil & gas gained a lot.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap gained 1.67% and 1.70% respectively.

Today, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened positively at 10,428.11, up 205.02 points, as against its previous closure in which it gained 247.74 points.

Manila - Philippine shares