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Nikkei regains 10,000 mark
(CNN) -- Asian markets are mainly higher at midday Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei recovering from a weak start to be back above the 10,000 mark. Australia's market is doing best, with a gain of about 0.8 percent. South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are also firmer. But there are slight falls for Taiwan and New Zealand. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 is up 0.33 percent to 10,023.91 at the end of the morning session. That is the second time this week it has risen abovel 10,000, putting it at levels not seen since August last year. The broader Topix index is 0.54 percent higher at 984.63. Both indices were initially lower, following a mixed day on Wall Street that saw the Dow Jones industrial average fall 0.7 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished virtually flat, just in the black. (Full story) Gains in telecom stocks, some carmakers, retailers, drugmakers and banks are offsetting weakness among Japanese techs. The market's biggest stock, NTT DoCoMo, is 1.7 percent higher at 301,000 yen, with gains too for parent NTT and rival KDDI. Among carmakers, Honda is also 3 percent higher at 5190 yen. Toyota and Nissan are both unchanged at 3500 yen and 1242 yen respectively. Techs are off sharply, with Internet investor Softbank down 3.3 percent to 3510 yen and its 42 percent-held Yahoo Japan off 6.7 percent to 2.08 million after Yahoo! in the United States met earnings estimates. Fujitsu and Hitachi are both 4.3 percent lower. Retailer Ito-Yokado is up 1 percent to 3710 yen and big drugmaker Takeda Chemical Industries is 3.55 percent higher to 4670 yen. In the banking sector, UFJ fell 2 percent and Mizuho is down 2.5 percent. But there were small gains for MTFG and SMFG. On the currency front, the dollar is trading at 117.74 yen in Tokyo. Separately, the surplus in Japan's current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, rose 28.5 percent in May from a year earlier to 1.3468 trillion yen ($11.42 billion), the Ministry of Finance said. The trade surplus rose 13.5 percent to 824.9 billion yen, with exports growing 3.8 percent to 4.0856 trillion yen and imports increasing 1.6 percent to 3.2607 trillion yen. In Seoul, the Kospi is 0.27 percent at 707.47, with gains of a similar size for big exporters Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics. Banking leader Shinhan is 1.8 percent higher at 14,000 won. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is 0.79 percent higher at 3052.9, led by a 1.4 percent rise for big media group News Corp. Resources leader BHP Billiton is up 1.2 percent to A$9.07. Qantas Airways is 2.5 percent higher to A$3.30. One factor weighing on the market is the sharp decline over the last two days of the Australian dollar, which reached a five-year high of 68.42 U.S. cents last Friday but is now down to 65.19 U.S. cents Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.3 percent higher at 1527.57 after data was released Thursday showing the economy slumped more than 11 percent in the June quarter from the previous quarter. (Full story) Hong Kong is trading slightly higher, with the Hang Seng index up 0.15 percent to 10,042.87. China Mobile is 1 percent higher and conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is 1.4 percent ahead to HK$50.50. Taiwan's Taiex is off 0.7 percent to 5321.92, led by a 3.3 percent fall for chip foundry TSMC to T$58.50. TSMC said Wednesday a secondary offering was selling American Depositary Shares worth $822 million. (Full story) New Zealand is flat, trending just into the red.
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