| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asia hanging onto gains
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks are broadly higher at midday Wednesday, following solid U.S. earnings results and a strong rally on Wall Street. Australia is showing the strongest gain, up 1 percent. Hong Kong and New Zealand are both about 0.8 percent higher while South Korea is half a percent ahead. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average is up 0.68 percent to 7843.19, following its drop of 2.24 percent on Tuesday. The broader capital-weighted Topix index of first section issues is up 0.56 percent at 791.87. Japanese blue chips such as Toyota Motor and NTT DoCoMo are up strongly. But consumer electronics leader Sony is in the red and big bank Mizuho is down to another record low. Toyota has put on 2.53 percent to 2630 yen and Honda is up 1.06 percent to 3820 yen. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, is 2.92 percent higher at 247,000 yen. Another big gainer is leading photo film maker Fuji Photo Film, which is up 3.61 percent at 3160 yen. Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC and Canon are all showing modest rises. But big exporter Sony is off 1.85 percent to 3720 yen and banking giant Mizuho Financial Group is down almost 3 percent to a record low of 62,200 yen. Other banks UFJ and SMFG are also in the red, but MTFG is up slightly at 402,000 yen. Japan's generally stronger showing follows a rally on Wall Street Tuesday, where the Dow Jones industrial average put on 1.87 percent to 8484.99 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1.89 percent to 1451.36. (Full story) U.S. President George W. Bush backed another term for Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who successfuly underwent surgery Tuesday for an enlarged prostate gland. (Full story) Korea moves up
In other Asian markets, South Korea is recovering a little from Tuesday's 2.8 percent fall. The Kospi is up 0.54 percent to 606.59. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics is up 1.34 percent to 302,500 won and big exporter Hyundai Motor is down 0.69 percent to 26,700 won after giving back early gains. SK Telecom is also just in the red, down 0.29 percent to 173,500 won. Big bank Kookmin is up 0.76 percent to 33,350 won after posting a big drop in quarterly earnings on Tuesday. (Full story) Australia's S&P/ASX200 is up 1 percent to 3009.6, boosted by a 3 percent gain to A$11.38 for the market's biggest stock, media group News Corp. National Australia Bank, Telstra and Qantas are all higher, but resources leader BHP Billiton is down about 1 percent to A$9.45. AMP is up 3.25 percent to A$8.26 after a deal by its Henderson Global investment arm to take over the Australian assets of U.S. utility Aquila. New Zealand's Top 50 is 0.87 percent higher at 1981.46. Air New Zealand, which said it was cutting its earnings outlook and more flights to Japan and Hong Kong because of SARS, is down 4.88 percent to NZ$0.39. (Full story) Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up 0.82 percent to 8642.45, with solid gains for banking leader HSBC, conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa and telcos PCCW and China Mobile. But airline Cathay Pacific is in the red, down 1.1 percent to HK$8.90. Singapore's Straits Times index is just in the red, down 0.26 percent to 1271.12. SingTel is down 0.7 percent to S$1.41 after announcing a deal Tuesday with NTT DoCoMo to cooperate on 3G services. (Full story) Taiwan's Taiex is up 0.13 percent to 4562.08. Big chip foundry TSMC is forging ahead, up 2.13 percent to T$48.00. Rival UMC is also higher, putting on 1.42 percent to T$21.40.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
