Business news for Tue, 25 Dec 2007 & with word benchmark. 5 news.

JAPANESE stocks rose for a third day, led by financial shares, after a decline in interbank borrowing costs signaled a global credit-market slump is easing. "The chaos in short-term financing markets has calmed down and that is a big reason why shares are moving today (Tuesday)," said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees US$468 million in assets at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co in Tokyo. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group Inc gained the most in two weeks after the London interbank offered rate, a global benchmark, dropped to the lowest since March 2006. Mitsui & Co, which generates most of its profit from commodities trading, had its steepest gain this month after crude oil advanced to a two-week high, Bloomberg News said. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 295.59, or 1.9 percent, to 15,552.59 at the close in Tokyo. It has fallen 9.7 percent so far in 2007, its first decline in five years. The broader Topix index added 26.83, or 1.8 percent, to

HUAXIA Bank Co plans to set up a mutual fund management unit to diversify revenue by tapping the growing appetite for investment products. The Beijing-based bank is hiring staff for the venture, which is still in the preparation stage, Huaxia said in a statement on its Website, without giving more details. China allowed domestic lenders to expand into mutual fund management in 2005. Lenders including Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China have all set up fund units. China's decade-old fund management industry is expanding rapidly amid a booming stock market and low interest rates on bank savings, which channel savings from bank accounts to the stock market. The one-year benchmark deposit rate sits at 4.14 percent after six interest rate increases this year, lagging the 6.9 percent inflation of November. Meanwhile, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has nearly doubled this year, attracting

CHINA'S central bank raised interest rates six times in 2007 and stocks in the world's fastest growing economy are still more than twice as expensive as United States shares. PetroChina Co, whose market value tops Exxon Mobil Corp's by 39 percent, earns half the profit of the largest US oil company. China Mobile Ltd, the Beijing-based wireless carrier, is worth 41 percent more than AT&T Inc and brings in two-thirds its revenue. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd has grown to almost double the size of Bank of America Corp with a third the US lender's earnings. While the People's Bank of China pledged "forceful measures" and raised interest rates to a nine-year high last week to curb inflation and investing, stocks in the CSI 300 Index trade at 44.7 times earnings, the most expensive among the 10 largest markets, and more than double the ratio for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, data compiled by Bloomberg News show. The benchmark is up 171 percent this year in US

Tokyo shares closed higher, buoyed by financal stocks, while China's benchmark index closed lower on valuation concerns for index heavyweight PetroChina. Most other major Asian stock markets were closed.

Japanese stocks rose Tuesday, with the benchmark Nikkei lifted by gains in banking shares such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, while shares of NTT DoCoMo Inc. jumped on reports the firm will announce a major tie up with Google Inc. Markets in Taiwan and Shanghai were mixed in a narrow range of trading.