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Japan drives Asia's shaky recovery
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian markets found some relief Wednesday from the relentless falls of the past few days, with Japan's Nikkei average bouncing up more than 1 percent by the close. The Nikkei finished the day at 7943.04, up 80.61 points or 1.03 percent from the 20-year closing low of 7862.43 it reached Tuesday. The broader Topix, which has been at its lowest since 1984 this week, did even better, jumping 1.52 percent to 782.36. Singapore is back from a multi-year low with a gain of about 1.4 percent in late afternoon trade. Taiwan showed the region's best recovery, putting on 1.59 percent on tech-related gains. Hong Kong is moderately higher heading towards the close, up 0.3 percent. But Australia's market continued to plumb new four-year lows. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 fell 0.18 percent to 2718.4, after going as low as 2702.7 earlier in the day. New Zealand's Top 50 also finished down, off 0.42 percent to 1893.78. South Korea's volatile Kospi initially fell 1.2 percent, then made it into the black before easing again to finish down about 0.14 percent at 531.81, a 17-month low. Global equity markets have been pummeled this month by fears of an imminent war in Iraq. That, along with rising oil prices and a gloomy outlook for the world's biggest economies, has weighed heavily on investors' minds. European markets ended mixed on Tuesday, with London's FTSE coming off a seven-year low to finish 0.5 percent higher, but the Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich indices were all down. (Full story) In the United States, Wall Street sank again, the Dow Jones industrial average dipping to a five-month low of 7524.06, off 0.58 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.54 percent to 1271.47. (Full story) Tokyo snaps streak
In Tokyo Wednesday, the market snapped a six-day losing streak. Key blue-chips Sony, Toyota and NTT DoCoMo all finished higher. Sony ended 1.96 percent firmer at 4160 yen after finishing at a 17-month low of 4080 yen Tuesday. Toyota rose 1.86 percent and DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, was up a massive 7 percent to 215,000 yen. The big banks, which have taken a severe beating this week on worries about their fragile capital base, also finished higher. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rebounded 7.28 percent to 221,000 yen after plunging a massive 11.6 percent on Tuesday to a record low of 206,000 yen. UFJ Holdings put on 2.38 percent to 129,000 yen and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group closed 2.87 percent higher at 466,000 yen. Japan Airlines System, which slashed its earnings outlook Tuesday because of a slowdown in reservations stemming from security concerns, ended unchanged at 240 yen. (Full story) Rival All Nippon Airways was 1.71 percent higher at 238 yen. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings added 2.29 percent to 1252 yen, up from a 13-month low. Computer giant NEC closed 2.26 percent higher at 407 yen after hitting a post-bubble low of 398 yen the previous day. NEC said Tuesday it would adopt a new corporate management structure from April 1 to promote the integration of its computer and network solution businesses. Hitachi rose 4.6 percent, and Fujitsu, Toshiba and Canon also ended higher. South Korea lower
In Seoul, South Korea's Kospi sank 1.20 percent to 524.53 in the first hour of trading, before recovering a little to finish 0.14 percent down at 531.81. That was still a fresh 17-month low. The market's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics, put on 0.87 percent to 290,000 won. But SK Telecom, once an investor favorite, dipped slightly to 142,500 won on concerns about the SK Group. The stock fell more than 12 percent yesterday after SK Group executives were indicted over accounting irregularities at an SK unit. (Full story) SK Global dropped 15 percent to 4,440 won and Hana Bank, its main creditor, fell the same to 11,050 won. But big exporter Hyundai Motor rose 3.43 percent to 22,600 won. In Australia, where the S&P/ASX200 index fell 0.18 percent to 2718.4, the market's biggest stock News Corp rose 1.38 percent to A$9.52. But big-cap telco Telstra lost 2.2 percent to A$4.01 and banking major CBA fell 2.04 percent to A$23.50. New Zealand's NZSE Top 50 indicator lost 0.42 percent as market heavyweight Telecom New Zealand fell 2.06 percent to NZ$4.27. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is about 0.3 percent higher near the close. Banking giant HSBC is flat at HK$82.25. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are all higher, but PCCW is down again. In Singapore the Straits Times index is coming back from a four-year low and is up about 1.4 percent at 1232.97 in late trade. DBS Group is 1.7 percent higher at S$9.05.
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