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Asian trio ends week higher
TOKYO, Japan -- The few Asian markets that traded on Friday closed higher, with tech stocks in Japan, Korea and Taiwan getting a boost from Nokia's strong earnings and a jump in U.S. shares. The Nikkei average finished the day up 0.67 percent to 7874.51, almost fully reversing the 0.73 percent fall on Thursday. The broader Topix index of first section issues showed a more modest gain, up 0.15 percent to 790.72. There were much stronger gains in South Korea and Taiwan, the two other major markets that were in action. In Seoul, the Kospi jumped 1.97 percent to 624.77, while Taipei's Taiex rose 2.01 percent to 4658.30. Tech stocks such as Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) led the way. Markets in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India and the Philippines were closed Friday for the Easter holiday break. The gains in Asia followed strong performances in Europe and the United States on Thursday. Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia lifted European bourses after posting a 13 percent profit rise in the first quarter of 2003. (Full story) U.S. stocks ended a shortened holiday week higher, as investors selectively cheered positive earnings. The Nasdaq jumped 2.2 percent to 1425.50 and the Dow industrial average put on almost 1 percent to 8337.65. (Full story) In Tokyo, there were good gains for tech-related issues. Tokyo Electron rose 2.7 percent to 4560 yen, Advantest was 3.27 percent higher to 4100 yen and electronics parts maker Kyocera put on 4.33 percent to 6030 yen. NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi and Toshiba were also higher, but consumer electronics leader Sony ended down 0.26 percent to 3880 yen. Mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, was down 1.63 percent to 242,000 yen. There were broad gains in the automotive sector. Toyota Motor was up 1.16 percent to 2610 yen and Nissan Motor rose 1.15 percent to 881 yen. Banks were mainly weaker. Mizuho ended below the 70,000 yen level again, off 0.7 percent to 69,900 yen. UFJ lost 1.5 percent and MTFG fell 2.16 percent to 407,000 yen. SMFG put on half a percent to 193,000 yen. In Seoul, Samsung, the world's largest computer memory chipmaker, ended 4.3 percent higher at 315,000 won after posting a worse-than-expected drop in first-quarter profits. (Full story) Big exporter Hyundai Motor put on 3 percent to 30,150 won and leading bank Kookmin was 2.34 percent higher at 35,000 won. SK Telecom recovered from an early fall to finish unchanged at 185,000 won. Its largest shareholder is SK Corp, which is now controlled by Monaco-based Sovereign Asset Management through its Crest Securities unit. In Taiwan, the market's biggest stock, chip foundry TSMC, jumped 3.7 percent to T$47.50. Its smaller rival UMC was 3.9 percent higher to T$21.40. Other techs also showed strong gains, with VIA Technologies up 3.6 percent to T$45.90. But industrials were slightly weaker, with Nan Ya Plastic off 0.3 percent.
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