|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
S. Korea, Australia open higher
SYDNEY, Australia -- Markets in Asia are edging higher Thursday morning as investors make a cautious start to the year. South Korea, Australia and Taiwan are showing gains, while Singapore is just in the red. The region's biggest market, Japan, remains closed until next Monday. South Korea's Kospi is doing best in early trade, up 1.1 percent to 634.41. That comes after it lost ground rapidly in the last few days of 2002 over tensions on the Korean peninsula. It finished down 9.54 percent for the year, but relatively speaking, it was one of the better performers among the bigger Asian markets in 2002. Japan's Nikkei lost 18.6 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 18.2 percent, Taiwan was down 19.8 percent and Australia lost 12.1 percent. Bluechips strongerAustralia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index added 3.6 points or 0.1 percent to 3,010.7 by 11 a.m. local time (2400 GMT) Thursday as some bluechips gained ground. News Corp. rose 1.3 percent to A$11.63, Telstra rose 0.5 percent to A$4.43 and Commonwealth Bank rose 0.4 percent to A$27.11. Peptide Technology jumped rallied 29.1 percent to A$1.42 on solid volume after announcing it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market an antibody to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Gold stocks continued their run, with Newcrest Mining up 0.7 percent to A$7.25, Lihir Gold up 2.1 percent to A$1.47 and Sons of Gwalia jumping 7.0 percent to A$2.77. But resources leaders BHP Billiton is down 0.3 percent to A$10.12 and Rio Tinto is flat at A$33.95. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics is unchanged at 314,000 won. In Taiwan the Taiex is virtually flat up 0.01 percent to 4,452.76. Singapore's Straits Times index is down 0.64 percent to 1332.55. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
