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Asian stocks on the advance
(CNN) -- Japan and some other Asian markets are posting modest advances at midday Monday, but have yet to regain all the ground lost in last Thursday's heavy selloff. The Nikkei 225 is up 1.01 percent to 10,440.06 at the end of the morning session. Last Friday, the index rose an almost imperceptible 0.54 points to close at 10,305.70. A day earlier, it fell more than 5 percent, the biggest single-day points loss in two years. The broader Topix index is up 1.06 percent to 1035.82. It rose 0.78 percent on Friday. The gains in Tokyo are coming mainly from bank issues and some tech-related stocks . But Wall Street's fall Friday on a cautious Microsoft outlook is limiting investor enthusiasm. Taiwan and South Korea are also higher while in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 index has given up early gains to be down 0.1 percent in early afternoon trade. Hong Kong is flat, drifting into the red. Singapore's Straits Times index is down 1.25 percent to 1711.48. New Zealand's market is closed for a holiday. In Tokyo, there are solid gains for big banks, with Mizuho up 3.5 percent to 267,000 yen and UFJ 2.7 percent ahead to 459,000 yen. SMFG is up 2.36 percent to 564,000 yen and MTFG is 1.1 percent higher to 801,000 yen. The banks fell heavily on Thursday as investors turned skittish, but regained some ground Friday. Carmakers are mixed, with Toyota flat at 3220 yen, Nissan just in the red at 1224 yen and Honda up 1.9 percent to 4370 yen. In the tech-related sector, there are gains for consumer electronics leader Sony, up 2 percent to 2090 yen, and Matsushita Electric Industrial, up 1.5 percent to 1341 yen. Hitachi and NEC are also higher, but Fujitsu and NEC Electronics are down. One of the biggest falls is from Toshiba, off 4.8 percent to 455 yen. The company issued a profit warning on Friday.Full story) Sharp is up 1.8 percent to 1738 yen after announcing plans to boost LCD production in Europe. (Full story) The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, is up 1.2 percent to 607,000 yen. The dollar is trading slightly weaker at 108.79 yen at midday in Tokyo. A falling dollar makes Japan's exports more expensive and lowers the value of profits earned overseas when converted to yen. In Seoul, the Kospi is up 1.2 percent to 757.16. Big exporter Hyundai Motor is up 2.5 percent to 36,800 won, while there are gains of 1.7 percent each for SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics. Leading bank Shinhan is up 2.1 percent to 17,000 won. In Australia, resources leader BHP Billiton is down 1.3 percent to A$11.19 as the Australian dollar strengthens against the greenback. It is trading at 70.03 U.S. cents Monday afternoon. Moves are muted in a quiet market. Telstra is flat at A$4.74, while News Corp is slightly ahead at A$12.19. AMP is up 1.5 percent to A$6.63. In Taiwan, the Taiex is 0.67 percent higher to 5958.01, with techs leading gains. TSMC is 2.3 percent ahead to T$66.00 and UMC is up 1 percent to T$30.70. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is down 0.25 percent to 11,706.75, with most blue chips down slightly. leading bank HSBC is up 0.45 percent to HK$111.00. The moves in Asia follow a down day for Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent to 9582.46, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 1.1 percent to 1865.59. (Full story)
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