Asian markets firm on world stimulus package

Asian stock markets extended gains for the second day today rising by up to 1 per cent after the world's top 20 economic powers pledged stimulus measures that include injection of $1 trillion into the financial system to tide over the current economic crisis.

However, the gains were not considerable compared to yesterday when the Asian markets had surged as much as 7 per cent on build-up of expectations from the G-20 meeting held in London.

The Asian markets, including Japan's Nikkei, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi, were trading in the positive territory with gains of about one per cent in the late afternoon trade.

Nikkei 225 was up 0.34 per cent at 8,749.84 points, Hang Seng rose 0.12 per cent to 14,539.77 points. Kospi quoted at 1,283.75 points, up 0.53 per cent in the late afternoon trade.

Meanwhile, India's Bombay Stock Exchange was close on account of a local holiday, Ram Navami. The benchmark Sensex, surged by 4.51 per cent to settle at 10,349 points yesterday.