"The sentiment overall is a little bit worse than a couple of days ago after the KDIC's (Korea Development Insurance Corp) launch of exchangeable bonds and the potential of new deals coming out from different banks," said Mr Carl Wong, credit analyst with Bank of America in Hong Kong.

But prices were mostly steady due to the stable swapspreads overnight and the lack of investor interest as many Asian and the US players were in a holiday mode. Korean sovereign bonds extended Wednesday's weakness with the benchmark 8.875 per cent coupon issue, due in 2008, widening two basis points over US Treasuries to 222 bps.

Shares of Hong Kong's underground operator Mass Transit Railway Corp (MTRC) made their debut on Thursday, attracting a fair amount of bids, but MTRC bonds reacted little.

MTRC 2009 bonds with a coupon of 7.5 per cent were quoted at 163 bps over Treasuries - 11 bps narrower than the closely watched Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp (KCRC) bonds due in 2010.Indonesian auto giant PT Astra International has made on early payment on its Series 1 debt installments which weren't due until December. The car maker said it was able to make the payment of $66.7 million and $66.3 billion rupiah ($7.5 million) ahead of the deadline because of strong cash flows in the January-September period."We have paid the first installment which should be due in December so we can save interest expenses," corporate secretary Aminuddin said.

Astra is scheduled to make two more principal debt repayments totaling $133 million and 133 billion rupiah ($15 million) in June and December next year.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) had raised 12.04 trillion rupiah ($1.37 billion) by the end of September through asset sales. In a statement, IBRA said it expects to raise a further 6.86 trillion rupiah ($780.4 million) by the end of the year, in part from sales of the Salim Group's holding company Holdiko Prakarsa, worth around 2.91 trillion rupiah.

IBRA also expects to raise 1.2 trillion rupiah from the sale of some corporate loans and by selling further stakes in commercial banks.

In addition, IBRA said it expected to raise 1.78 trillion rupiah from the sale of its shares in Bank Central Asia in the fourth quarter of this year and 0.14 trillion rupiah from Bank Niaga.A parliamentary hearing was due to be held on Thursday to discuss the approval of further sell-offs in IBRA's stakes in the two banks.

(Reuters)