MANILA, Philippines - It's another historic close for the Philippine Stock Exchange index, which crossed the 6,800 level on Wednesday.

The benchmark index settled at 6,835.21, up 1.84%. This is already a thousand points or 17% up from last year's close of 5,812. This is the 23rd record close of the year.

"Global markets are rallying on positive economic indicators, while locally, initial earnings reports of our listed companies have been generally better than expected. Given these promising developments, the sustained growth of the market finds more support that will hopefully lead us to reach new milestones,” PSE Chief Operating Officer Roel A. Refran said in a statement.

The PSEi also set a new intraday high at 6,842.97 points surpassing the previous record level of 6,725.36 points posted on March 1.

Property shares lead gainers on the bullish outlook for the real estate sector. Megaworld rose 2.56% to P4, while Ayala Land climbed 4.78% to P32.85.

SM Investments also surged 1.8%, after reporting a 16% jump in 2012 income. Aboitiz Equity also closed up 1%, as it announced its 2012 profit rose 13%.

At the foreign exchange market, the peso was 3 centavos stronger at P40.69 against the US dollar.

Asian markets rise after Dow hits record high

Meanwhile, Asian markets rallied Wednesday following a record-breaking performance by shares on Wall Street, with Tokyo and Sydney both hitting multi-year highs.

The stand-out player was Japanese electronics giant Sharp, which surged more than 17 percent in the morning on reports that it was ready for a tie-up with South Korea's Samsung worth more than $100 million.

Tokyo added 2.13 percent, or 248.82 points, to end at 11,932.27 while Sydney was 0.82 percent higher, adding 41.4 points to 5,116.8 -- both indexes sitting around highs not seen since September 2008.

Seoul was up 0.20 percent, or 4.13 points, at 2,020.74, while Hong Kong rose 0.96 percent, or 217.34 points, to 22,777.84 and Shanghai added 0.90 percent, or 20.87 points, to 2,347.18.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.89 percent higher at 14,253.77, beating by nearly 90 points its former record seen on October 9, 2007, just before the onset of the global financial crisis.

The surge on the Dow, which has seen the index more than double since its trough in March 2009, comes despite uncertainty in the US economy and as Washington battles over how to trim its huge deficit. Shares were also helped by a pick-up in the country's services sector.

"Monetary easing measures by Japan, the US and Europe are providing excess liquidity in the market. The Dow's gains are just part of it," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

Also on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.96 percent to close at 1,539.79, just two percent short of its own record, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.32 percent.

In Tokyo trade Sharp soared 17.06 percent at one point after the Nikkei business daily and other media reported that Samsung was set to make a capital injection. The firm ended 14.05 percent higher, while Samsung closed up 0.65 percent.

The deal, in which Sharp will sell new shares, will provide much-needed support for the troubled Japanese firm while giving Samsung greater access to smartphone and tablet computer screens.

Sharp confirmed the $111 million capital injection deal with Samsung shortly after the Tokyo index closed. - With reports from ANC and Agence France-Presse