Taiwan stocks wilt on China fears
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Korea's LG Card denied reports Thursday of a sale to Hana Bank.
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(CNN) -- Japan led Asian markets to a mixed close Thursday in quiet trade ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Taiwan ended sharply lower on nervousness over relations with mainland China.
South Korea, Australia and New Zealand all ended just in the red.
The Nikkei 225 average finished 0.18 percent higher to 10,163.38, following Wednesday's gain of 1.85 percent.
The broader Topix index did better, putting on 0.41 percent to 1006.11, helped by a 9 percent lift for Mizuho. Other Japanese banks were up but some techs closed in the red.
South Korea's Kospi index, which jumped 1.89 percent on Wednesday, slipped 0.12 percent to 781.68. Hyundai Motor lost about 0.9 percent.
Taiwan's Taiex posted the region's biggest fall, down 2.05 percent on investor fears that a referendum law will further aggravate relations with China.
Singapore's Straits Times index was up about 0.5 percent and Hong Kong finished about 0.1 percent lower.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 slipped 0.18 percent to 3185.8, while New Zealand's Top 50 was also in the red, down 0.32 percent.
The moves in Asia followed a day of modest gains on Wall Street Wednesday, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The Dow Jones industrial average put on 0.16 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.53 percent. (Full story)
Earlier the 30-nation OECD released its economic outlook in which it said a global recovery was underway, and predicted 1.8 percent growth for Japan in 2004. (Full story)
In Tokyo, consumer electronics leader Sony rose 1.6 percent to 3790 yen, and there were solid gains of 2.7 percent each for Fujitsu and Matsushita Electric Industrial.
But Canon was down 1 percent to 4990 yen and Toshiba was off 0.25 percent to 399 yen. Hitachi, NEC and Kyocera ended flat, just in the black.
Big automakers managed to post modest gains. Honda was up 0.7 percent to 4350 yen and Toyota rose 1.25 percent to 3250 yen. Nissan put on 0.66 percent to 1222 yen.
The market's biggest stock, NTT DoCoMo, ended down 1.23 percent at 240,000 yen.
In the banking sector, Mizuho jumped 9.3 percent to 281,000 yen and UFJ rose 7.2 percent on confidence about earnings prospects. SMFG ended about 3.6 percent ahead and MTFG was up 2.1 percent to 820,000 yen.
Internet stock Yahoo Japan finished 2.67 percent higher to 1.54 million yen following rises in U.S. technology stocks.
In Seoul, Hyundai Motor, one of the market's biggest gainers on Wednesday, was down 0.9 percent at 44,600 won and Samsung Electronics rose 0.11 percent to 455,500 won.
SK Telecom fell 1.3 percent and leading bank Shinhan ended 2.5 percent lower to 17,400 won.
Embattled credit card company LG Card continued to plunge, down another 6.6 percent to 5880 won. It denied reports of Hana Bank taking it over. (Full story)
In Australia, resources leader BHP Billiton was up 0.7 percent to A$11.18 and rival Rio Tinto was 1 percent higher to A$34.65. But there were falls for blue chips News Corp. and National Australia Bank. ANZ lost 1.2 percent.
Price moves generally were muted, though gold miners Newcrest, Placer Dome and Lihir rose sharply in line with the price of gold.
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Pro-independence supporters march in Taiwan ahead of a controversial vote.
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In Taiwan, the Taiex was off 2.05 percent to 5740.57, with a fall of 3 percent for the market's biggest stock, chip foundry TSMC. It closed at T$63.00, while UMC lost 2.6 percent to T$29.40. Formosa Plastic was down 3.8 percent to T$50.00.
Singapore's Straits Times gained 0.48 percent to 1,696.44, with banks UOB and OCBC adding 1.6 and 0.9 percent respectively. Among the blue chips, Singapore Press Holdings put on 1.0 percent to $19.40.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.09 percent to 12,075.99. HSBC was down 0.4 percent at HK$11.50 and PCCW was up 1 percent to HK$5.15.
