| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asian stocks head higher
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian stocks are higher at midday Monday, with Japanese big banks firming ahead of their expected announcement of massive losses later in the day. UFJ Holdings is leading the way in Tokyo with a jump of 7.7 percent. Traders say investors have already factored big losses into their pricing for bank shares. The Nikkei 225 average has finished the morning session 0.72 percent higher at 8243.71, building on Friday's 1.65 percent gain. The broader Topix index is up 0.57 percent to 830.86. Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan is showing the biggest gain, up more than 2 percent, followed by Hong Kong with 1.5 percent. South Korea is almost 1.3 percent higher, Singapore is up about 0.5 percent and New Zealand is showing a modest gain of 0.15 percent . Australia is moving against the trend, just into the red with a fall of about 0.1 percent. In Tokyo, the focus is on the four big banks, which are expected to report huge losses for the year ended March 31 after the close, as they continue to struggle with bad loans. UFJ Holdings is up 7.7 percent to 112,000 yen at the midday break, with Mizuho Financial Group up 5.9 percent to 77,600 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 4.6 percent stronger to 204,000 yen. The last of the big four, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, is regarded as the strongest. It is up 0.6 percent to 462,000 yen. Earlier this month, the government agreed to bail out Japan's No. 5 bank, Resona, after it breached minimum capital requirements. Resona is 3 percent lower at 66 yen. Mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, is flat at 261,000 yen. Rival Japan Telecom is about 3 percent higher at 388,000 yen. Leading automakers Toyota and Nissan are slightly higher, though Honda is just in the red. Consumer electronics giant Sony, another big exporter, is 0.66 percent higher at 3060 yen. The dollar is steady, just below the 117-yen level at 116.88 in midday trade in Tokyo. Among tech-related stocks, Kyocera is up 2.8 percent to 6220 yen, NEC is up 2 percent to 476 yen, Nintendo is 3.3 percent higher to 8520 yen and there are modest gains for Advantest and Tokyo Electron. South Korea upIn Seoul, the Kospi is 1.3 percent higher at 619.34, with blue chips Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor recovering from early losses to be in the black. But SK Telecom is down about 0.3 percent to 179,500 won after the SK Group failed to reach agreement with creditors on a $1.2 billion debt restructure for trading arm SK Global. Memory chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor, one of Korea's most volatile stocks, is up more than 11 percent to 4210 won. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is off 0.13 percent at 2993.9, driven lower by modest falls for media giant News Corp, resources leader BHP Billiton and telco Telstra. Airline Qantas is down 1.2 percent to A$3.32. Leading bank NAB is slightly higher, but other big banks are in the red. Media group John Fairfax is up 2 percent to A$2.96 after progress on its planned takeover of New Zealand's INL. The New Zealand Top 50 index is 0.14 percent higher at 2046.99, with Air New Zealand flat at NZ$0.45 and Telecom New Zealand down 0.8 percent to NZ$5.07. In Taiwan, the Taiex is up strongly, 2.18 percent ahead to 4444.44. The market's biggest stock, chip foundry TSMC, is 1.22 percent higher at T$49.70. UMC is up 1.5 percent and Formosa Plastic is 2.5 percent firmer to T$47.80. Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.4 percent higher at 1323.40, with gains for banking leader DBS. Singapore Airlines is unchanged at S$9.55 and SingTel is 0.7 percent lower at S$1.44. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is almost 1.5 percent higher at 9440.54, reflecting a better mood in the SARS-embattled city after a World Health Organization travel advisory was lifted. Conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is 2.1 percent ahead to HK$48.20, and there are solid gains for China Mobile, PCCW and big bank HSBC.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
