Investors Advance as Taliban Beats Retreat.

Byline: Ray Heath

Nov. 14--The Taliban's retreat from Kabul was the signal for an advance in Asian markets today. Investors moved in on hopes that the Afghanistan campaign will not become a debilitating struggle through the winter, and that the threat of a global economic backlash has receded.

Taking their cue from the overnight strength on Wall Street and Nasdaq, investors pounced on blue-chip exporters, while electronics stocks bounded ahead on brightening prospects for sales and prices, taking markets in South Korea and Taiwan up by about 3 percent.

An early surge in Tokyo which took the Nikkei 225 Average up through 10,230 was later pared by continuing concerns over bad bank loans, and it slipped back to 10,086.76, a net gain of 56.2 points.

Institutional investors were also wary after a rise in current account figures was taken as an indication that imports were falling on weakening economic prospects, rather than reflecting a surge in exports.

Optimism that the end of the war was in sight inspired heavy buying of Hong Kong stocks, which boosted the Hang Seng index by 250.33 points to 10,913.17.

Telecoms stocks led the charge, and mainland cellphone operator China Mobile, in which Vodafone has a 2 percent stake, was ahead by 4 percent. Hutchison Whampoa, which in turn owns 3 percent of Vodafone, added nearly 3 percent following warm reaction to the British phone giant's figures yesterday.