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Asia markets open lower
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian markets have opened lower Thursday, taking their lead from Wall Street's softer performance amid jitters over the war in Iraq. But moves in either direction are muted. In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 average is down 0.11 percent at 8,343.13 and the broader Topix index is down 0.17 percent at 820.02. In South Korea, the Kospi is down about 0.7 percent to 550.91. Markets in Australia and New Zealand are trading just in the red. Along with falls on Wall Street and edginess in European markets, investors in Asia are staying on the sidelines as the end of the Japanese financial year on March 31 approaches. Japan's big banks, including UFJ, SMFG and Mizuho are higher in early trade. But big exporters such as Toyota Motor and Sony are slightly lower. Tech-related stocks such as Fujitsu, Hitachi and Toshiba are also weaker. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo is up 2.6 percent at 237,000 yen. DoCoMo said on Wednesday it would launch the world's first wristwatch-style mobile phones operating on personal handyphone system (PHS) networks. But many other blue chips are under pressure after a fall of 0.61 percent for the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average and a decline of 0.26 percent for the Nasdaq composite index. (Full story) "I expect a dull market here, especially given uncertainty in the Iraq war," Hiroichi Nishi of Nikko Cordial Securities told Reuters news agency. In Australia, the SP/ASX200 is 0.1 percent lower at 2889.1, with modest falls for BHP Billiton and market heavyweight News Corp. Banking leader NAB is half a percent higher, as is the country's biggest telephone company, Telstra. In Seoul, big chipmaker and consumer electronics exporter Samsung Electronics is about 1 percent lower at 301,000 won. Hyundai Motor is down 1.2 percent to 24,800 won, but SK Telecom is managing to stay in the black, up about 1 percent to 156,000 won. Reuters contributed to this report.
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