Sawt Falasteen - Asian markets mostly rise, Hong Kong boosted by Alibaba rally

The gains followed another record for the S&P 500 on Wall Street that came on the back of optimism over the US economic outlook and a positive run of earnings.

That has helped offset fading expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times this year starting in March.

Hong Kong piled on more than three percent Wednesday, building on the previous day's gains of more than two percent -- a much-needed advance after tanking around 10 percent from the start of the year to Monday.

The Hang Seng's rise was fuelled by a 7.3 percent surge in Alibaba on news that Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai had bought about $200 million worth of shares between them, which Bloomberg said was seen as a positive signal to investors in the e-commerce titan.

Other Hong Kong-listed tech firms rallied, including Tencent, JD.com and Netease.

Alibaba's New York-listed stock piled on nearly eight percent.

The firm remains down more than 70 percent from its record high seen in 2020, when Beijing began a clampdown on China's tech sector that saw the cancellation of a planned IPO by subsidiary Ant Group worth $34 billion -- a record at the time.

Traders were given an extra boost later Wednesday after the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said it would next month lower the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve as it looks to ramp up lending to help kick-start the stuttering economy.

The 0.5 percentage point cut in the reserve requirement ratio would pump an extra $140 billion into financial markets, the PBoC said.

News of the reduction came a day after Bloomberg reported that Premier Li Qiang had called for more "forceful" measures to support China's battered stocks, giving a shot in the arm to investor confidence.

Authorities were said to be looking at a raft of initiatives, and policymakers were seeking to mobilise nearly $280 billion, mainly from the offshore accounts of state-owned enterprises.

There were also gains in Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Mumbai, Wellington, Taipei and Manila.

However, Tokyo -- which rallied in January to three-decade highs thanks to rising hopes for the Japanese economy -- fell after central bank boss Kazuo Ueda ramped up expectations it will soon move away from its ultra-loose monetary policy.

Bets are now on a more hawkish shift to the long-running easing measures in the first half of the year.

Seoul and Jakarta also eased.

London, Frankfurt and Paris all rose at the open.

Investors are keeping a close eye on the US earnings season, which analysts said had so far been largely positive, spurring hope that the world's top economy will continue to grow healthily, even with interest rates still sitting at two-decade highs.

Wall Street remained optimistic despite bets on a March rate cut waning following warnings from Fed officials that they were determined to do what was needed to tame inflation, suggesting a more dovish turn was not yet in the offing.

"The excitement is kind of gone at this point and everybody's sobering up a little bit after the pivot party," said Emily Roland, at John Hancock Investment Management, referring to an end-of-year equity surge sparked by expectations of an early Fed reduction.

- Key figures around 0810 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8 percent at 36,226.48 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 3.6 percent at 15,899.87 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 2,820.77 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,527.85

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.79 yen from 148.32 yen on Tuesday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0872 from $1.0857

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2702 from $1.2692

Euro/pound: UP at 85.59 pence from 85.52 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.5 percent at $74.70 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $79.88 per barrel

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 37,908.45 (close)

G.AbuGhazaleh--SF-PST