* Asian shares gain led by defensive plays
* Euro, sterling under pressure ahead of cen.bank meetings
* Oil, gold steady after recent slumps
By Rafael Nam
HONG KONG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Asian shares rose for a second
session on Thursday, though investors' willingness to take on
risk was mainly limited to defensive plays, while the dollar
and yen rose as central banks in the UK and Europe prepared to
cut interest rates to their lowest in years.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England on
Thursday are expected to join central banks from Thailand to
New Zealand in drastically reducing interest rates in response
to a deep and potentially prolonged global economic downturn.
[]
Oil prices fell below $46 a barrel to almost four-year lows
as fears of deepening economic woes overshadowed bullish weekly
U.S. oil stocks data, while gold was range-bound after slumping
nearly 2 percent on Wednesday.
"Basically we're moving within a bear market, and given the
trend towards a strong yen, people who want to buy stocks have
no choice besides defensive shares," said Koichi Ogawa, chief
portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.
"There's not a lot of good news out there, not a lot of
buying factors."
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose 1.2 percent as of 0210 GMT, posting its
second consecutive day of gains.
The MSCI index has advanced 13 percent since hitting a
five-year low on Nov. 21, but is still down 59 percent for the
year.
Investors turned to defensive or domestic demand-driven
plays in Asia such as Japanese drug makers, which helped push
Japan's Nikkei average <> up 0.6 percent.
Takeda Pharmaceutical <4502.T>, Japan's largest
drugmakerm rose 0.7 percent, while Korea Electric Power Corp
<015760.KS> gained 1.7 percent.
Defensive stocks lifted Wall Street on Wednesday, in spite
of new data -- including large job losses among U.S. employers
and a slumping service sector -- that failed to inspire
confidence in a U.S. economy already in recession for a year.
[]
Other economies worldwide are faring no better. A corporate
survey in Japan signalled the country's economic performance in
the third quarter may have been even worse than first reported.
[]
Central banks have been cutting rates aggressively.
Thailand on Wednesday cut its benchmark by a full
percentage point, while New Zealand slashed them by a record
150 basis points to their lowest in five years. See []
Major share indexes in Shanghai <>, Hong Kong <>
and Singapore <.FTSTI> rose about 2 percent each, while markets
in South Korea <> and Taiwan <> posted smaller gains.
DOLLAR, YEN ADVANCE
The euro and the British pound remained vulnerable ahead of
ECB and BOE meetings later in the day that are expected to
result in hefty interest rate cuts in a bid to revive economic
growth.
The euro was down 0.2 percent from late New York trade at
$1.2690 <EUR=>, while sterling edged down 0.1 percent to
$1.4770 <GBP=D4>.
Meanwhile, the dollar edged down 0.1 percent to 93.17 yen
<JPY=>, above Wednesday's five-week low of 92.53 yen.
Expectations for a slump in weak global demand meanwhile
sent oil prices to as low as $45.75 a barrel <CLc1>, their
lowest in nearly four years.
Gold <XAU=> was range-bound after its prior day slump,
trading at $771.75, down $0.75 from New York's notional close.
