Markets rise, Australia scales new peak

HONG KONG, Jan 24 (Reuters) Asian stocks gained ground on Wednesday with Australian shares hitting a fresh high, boosted by strength in mining and energy issues such as BHP Billiton following a bounce in commodity prices.

Oil jumped more than 4 percent on Tuesday after the United States announced plans to build up emergency crude reserves and as colder U.S. weather boosted demand for heating fuel. U.S.

crude was trading at .89 a barrel on Wednesday.

Along with firmer base metal prices, resource stocks across the region rose. Japan's INPEX Holdings climbed 1.39 percent, Australia's Woodside Petroleum added 1.53 percent, mining giant BHP Billiton put on 1.74 percent and top zinc refiner Korea Zinc jumped 3.44 percent.

At 0024 GMT, Tokyo's Nikkei was up 0.75 percent at fresh nine-month highs, further helped by a 0.95 percent rise in Yahoo Japan Corp., which is due to report its results later in the day.

U.S. shares in Yahoo Inc., which owns a third of the Japan unit, rose more than 5 percent in extended trading as investors cheered news of an early debut for its Internet advertising system and shrugged off a 61 percent fall in quarterly profits.

But further upside may be limited as investors await a slew of earnings from local firms next week.

''Investors are a little bit concerned as we will be seeing earnings from major Japanese high-tech firms next week,'' said Yutaka Miura, a deputy manager of equity information at Shinko Securities.

Australia's key S&P/ASX 200 index touched a new peak of 5,772.7, eclipsing the previous high of 5,739.8 set on Monday thanks to the major miners. Rio Tinto climbed 2.21 percent and gold producer Newcrest Mining added 1.28 percent.

''We had some bounce in commodity prices overnight, but the long-term price trend looks down,'' warned Peter Chilton, a fund manager with Constellation Capital Management.

In South Korea, gains of 0.67 percent for Samsung Electronics and 1.76 percent for steel maker POSCO also helped drive the benchmark KOSPI up 0.53 percent.

MSCI's measure of Asian stocks excluding Japan climbed 0.18 percent to 3-week highs, nearing the record peak of 403.64 set on Jan. 3.

On Wall Street, the blue-chip Dow up 0.45 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was little changed.

REUTERS PDS RN0730