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Japan hangs on, Korea slips
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with a slight gain for Japan but falls for South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. Asian markets opened higher following solid U.S. earnings results and a strong rally on Wall Street, but eased later in the day. Australia showed the region's strongest gain, putting on 0.83 percent. New Zealand rose 0.74 percent and Taiwan added 0.19 percent but Singapore closed the day at a five-week low on SARS worries. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average finished the day with a modest 0.04 percent gain to 7793.38, following its drop of 2.24 percent on Tuesday. At one point on Wednesday it was up to 7895.60. The broader capital-weighted Topix index rose 0.24 percent to 789.35. Japanese blue chips such as Toyota Motor and NTT DoCoMo closed up strongly. But consumer electronics leader Sony ended in the red and big bank Mizuho plunged to another record low. Among automakers, Toyota put on 2.53 percent to 2635 yen, Honda was unchanged at 3780 yen and Nissan rose 0.57 percent to 888 yen. After the close Nissan announced a share buyback and a strong lift in preliminary operating profit. (Full story) The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, finished 2.5 percent higher at 246,000 yen. Another big gainer was film maker Fuji Photo Film, up 3.28 percent at 3150 yen. Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC and Canon showed modest rises. But big exporter Sony was off 2.37 percent to 3700 yen, its lowest close since January 1997, ahead of full-year earnings on Thursday. Banking giant Mizuho Financial Group plunged 5.15 percent to a record low of 60,800 yen, continuing the rout among financial stocks. Other big banks UFJ, MTFG and SMFG also ended in the red. Japan's performance Wednesday 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 successfully underwent surgery Tuesday for an enlarged prostate gland. (Full story) Korea moves down
South Korea continued Tuesday's 2.8 percent fall, with the Kospi giving up early gains to finish 0.87 percent lower at 598.09. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics put on 0.5 percent to 300,000 won and big exporter Hyundai Motor fell 3.11 percent to 28,000 won. SK Telecom also ended in the red, down 2.3 percent to 170,000 won. Big bank Kookmin fell 1.51 percent to 32,600 won after posting a big drop in quarterly earnings on Tuesday. (Full story) Australia's S&P/ASX200 rose 0.83 percent to 3005.0, boosted by a 2.35 percent gain to A$11.31 for the market's biggest stock, media group News Corp. National Australia Bank, Telstra and Qantas were all higher, but resources leader BHP Billiton slipped 1.89 percent to A$9.36. AMP rose 2.63 percent to A$8.21 after a complex deal by its Henderson Global investment arm to take over the Australian assets of U.S. utility Aquila. (Full story) New Zealand's Top 50 finished 0.74 percent higher at 1978.89. Air New Zealand, which said it was cutting its earnings outlook and more flights to Japan and Hong Kong because of SARS, finished down 2.44 percent to NZ$0.40. (Full story) Hong Kong's Hang Seng index finished down 0.61 percent to 8519.60, as the market considered the $1.5 billion SARS relief package announced Wednesday afternoon by the government. (Full story) There were solid gains for banking leader HSBC and telco PCCW, up 3.78 percent to HK$4.80. But conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa slipped into the red, as did China Mobile. Airline Cathay Pacific was down 1.67 percent to HK$8.85. Singapore's Straits Times ended the day at a five-week low, down 0.65 percent at 1,266.08 -- its lowest close since March 17. China-based meat processors United Food Holdings (down 8.81 percent to S$0.88) and People's Food Holdings (4.10 percent lower at S$0.35) were hit amid concerns over the impact of SARS on companies doing business in China. SingTel fell 2.11 percent to S$1.39 after announcing a deal Tuesday with NTT DoCoMo to cooperate on 3G services. (Full story) Taiwan's Taiex finished up 0.19 percent to 4564.93. Big chip foundry TSMC forged ahead, up 2.77 percent to T$48.30. Rival UMC was also higher, putting on 1 percent to T$21.30.
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