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Asian shares, dollar rally after Wall St surge

Hong Kong - Asian markets firmed on Thursday, taking up the baton from Wall Street, where dealers broke a three-day losing streak thanks to news that new home sales had hit a six-year high.

The strong US data helped the dollar resume its uptrend and push back towards the ¥110 level, while the euro struggled after a disappointing survey of business confidence in Germany.

Tokyo shares rose 1.11% as the yen fell to levels not seen since August 2008, while Hong Kong climbed 0.53%, Sydney added 0.26%, Seoul was up 0.25% and Shanghai gained 0.64%.

Asian markets, which have been in a slumber this week, got a shot in the arm from the surge on New York's three main indexes in response to the housing figures.

The US Commerce Department said sales of new single-family houses surged 18% in August to an annual rate of 504 000, their fastest pace since May 2008.

The Dow jumped 0.90%, the S&P 500 rose 0.78% and the Nasdaq rallied 1.03%.

The news also lit a fire under the dollar, which jumped Wednesday in New York to 109.04 yen from ¥108.57 earlier in the day.

On Thursday in Tokyo the greenback rose further, hitting ¥109.30, its strongest level since August 2008.

Daisuke Uno, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, told Dow Jones Newswires: "It's probably fair to say that US employment data (on October 3) hold the key to more dollar strength, since a US economic rebound is the biggest fundamental reason to buy dollars."

The greenback also made more inroads against the euro after Germany's Ifo survey of business confidence hit a 17-month low in September.

The euro bought $1.2777 on Thursday, down from $1.2781 in US trade, where it fell through the 1.28 mark for the first time since July 2013. The common currency also bought ¥139.64, compared with ¥139.37 on Wednesday.

On oil markets, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for November delivery fell three cents to $92.77 while Brent crude for November eased five cents to $96.90.

Gold was at $1 213.20 an ounce against $1 220.98 an ounce late on Wednesday.

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