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Asian shares slip on profit-taking

Hong Kong - Asian markets mostly slipped on Monday on profit taking after the big gains at the end of last week, while the dollar eased from more than six-year highs against the yen.

Investors seemed unfazed after the Group of 20 said the world's biggest economies were on track to achieve an extra 1.8% growth on top of current projections within five years.

Tokyo shed 0.81% by the break, Hong Kong sank 1.30%, Shanghai was 0.78%, Sydney eased 0.75% and Seoul gave up 0.77%.

But Wellington was the stand-out performer, jumping 1.30% after the pro-business National Party won a resounding election victory at the weekend.

Regional markets ended last week on a high, helped by news that Scottish voters had rejected independence from the United Kingdom.

But there are still concerns about the Chinese economy as dealers look ahead to the release on Tuesday of manufacturing activity figures, while a pick-up in the yen dragged Japan's Nikkei back from a seven-year high.

On Wall Street a surge in new-listing Alibaba helped the Dow to rise 0.08% to hit a new record high. But the S&P 500 finished down 0.96 points and the Nasdaq dipped 0.30%.

Alibaba rallied 38.1% to $93.89 on its debut after its IPO raised a world record $25bn.

However, in Tokyo Softbank, which holds about a third of Alibaba's shares, slipped 4.0% on profit-taking on Monday, despite saying it would probably book a gain of about $4.6bn from the IPO. The firm rose about 30% in the six weeks leading up to the listing.

The dollar bought ¥109.05, compared with ¥108.99 in New York and sitting at levels not seen since 2008. However, it is well off the ¥109.21 earlier on Friday in Asia.

The euro bought $1.2845 and ¥140.0, against $1.2832 and ¥139.84 in US trade.

The G20 at the weekend said members could fend off geo-political tensions and financial problems to boost global growth.

Finance ministers and central bank governors at the two-day meeting said in a communique that reforms agreed so far - including to accelerate infrastructure investment, financial reform and encourage free trade - could add 1.8% to GDP and create millions of new jobs.

But more work was needed to meet a desired 2% goal agreed in Sydney earlier this year.

In New Zealand investors cheered a third straight election win for the party of Prime Minister John Key, who has been credited with hauling the economy out of a torpor following the financial crisis.

On oil markets US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October delivery eased 12 cents to $92.29 while Brent crude for November fell 34C to $98.05.

Gold was at $1 214.99 an ounce, against $1 221.56 an ounce late on Friday.

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