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Nikkei stays below 8,000
TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo's Nikkei average is below the 8,000 level at midday Thursday, with Japanese blue chips under pressure after the sharp falls on Wall Street on Wednesday. Other Asian markets are mixed, with gains for South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, but falls for Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 is 1.44 percent lower at 7941.96, while the broader Topix index is down 1.17 percent to 791.80. Banks and techs are weaker again. Mizuho Financial Group is close to its record low of 68,000 yen seen last Friday, trading 1.53 percent lower at 70,800 yen. Asia's choppy performance follows declines on Wall Street, where markets weakened despite the apparent end of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 1.22 percent lower at 8197.94 and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.89 percent to 1356.74 as investors began to focus on perceived weakness in the U.S. economy. (Wall St.) In Tokyo, consumer electronics maker Sony is down 2.5 percent to an 18-month low of 3910 yen. Rival Matsushita Electric Industrial is 3.5 percent lower to 964 yen. Tech-related issues are showing big falls, with NEC down 3.6 percent to 367 yen and Fujitsu off 2.45 percent to 318 yen. Carmakers are also weaker, Nissan down 1.8 percent and Honda and Toyota both about 1 percent lower. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo is 0.81 percent lower at 244,000 yen. Japan's second-largest carrier All Nippon Airways is up about half a percent to 211 yen after announcing it would buy 45 Boeing 737 aircraft, reducing the number of models in its fleet. Ito-Yokado, Japan's largest retailing group has decided to delist from the U.S. Nasdaq stock market, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said on Thursday. South Korea higherIn Seoul, the Kospi is 0.9 percent higher at 574.73. Blue chips Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics are firmer, as are leading banks Kookmin and Shinhan. But SK Telecom is down about 0.6 percent to 168,000 won and rival KT Corp is flat at 44,900 won. Big steelmaker Posco is unchanged at 104,000 won. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is 0.32 percent lower at 2941.0. News Corp., the market's biggest stock, is down a massive 7.5 percent to A$10.85 after confirming it has struck a $6.6 billion deal to take control of U.S. satellite broadcaster DirecTV. (Full story) Qantas Airways is 0.65 percent higher to A$3.09 after its proposed alliance with Air New Zealand was rejected in draft determinations by corporate regulators in Australia and New Zealand. (Full story) The ruling put Air New Zealand shares in a spin, sending them down 4.17 percent to NZ$0.46 and helping send the NZSE Top 50 1.6 percent lower to 1942.94. Singapore's Straits Times is up about 0.7 percent to 1302, with solid gains for banking leader DBS, Singapore Airlines and SingTel. Taiwan's Taiex is up 0.43 percent to 4556.74, though chip foundry TSMC is slightly weaker at T$44.60. UMC is unchanged at T$20.30. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down about a third of a percent to 8608 near midday. Blue chips HSBC, Hutchison Whampoa and China Mobile are all in the red. Reuters contributed to this report.
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