Asian stocks firmer
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Investors are hoping the Nasdaq will recover.
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SINGAPORE, (Reuters) -- Most Asian markets shrugged off Wall Street weakness Wednesday as they looked forward to a rebound on the Nasdaq, with Tokyo reversing early losses after brokerages upgraded technology companies.
An MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2 percent, at its highest level in almost four years, as Seoul, Taiwan, Singapore and Australian stocks rose, although concerns about SARS hit Hong Kong.
Traders noted that Nasdaq futures on Globex picked up, raising hopes that the tech-driven U.S. Nasdaq Composite Index might recover from Tuesday's 0.7 percent drop.
Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equity marketing at Nikko Cordial Securities, said trade volume had stayed above one billion shares and turnover was over one trillion yen ($9.4 billion) for the past five sessions, setting the stage for a rise.
"The volume and turnover tell you that the market is gathering momentum and is ready to overcome any obstacles," he said.
Sony Corp leapt nearly four percent after Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the stock to outperform," sending the Nikkei average to end up 0.12 percent at 10,863.
Sharp Corp rose 1.7 percent, after Nomura Securities raised its rating on the world's top maker of liquid crystal display televisions. The brokerage also lifted its rating on Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, helping the maker of Panasonic products to gain 0.6 percent.
Stock traders in Tokyo earlier said investors feared the dollar's recovery would be brief and they remained concerned the firm yen would hit Japanese exporters.
"Unless we get some kind of positive surprise such as a return of the dollar to around the 108-yen mark, the current correction phase could bring the Nikkei back to around 10,500," said Hiroaki Kuramochi, head of global equities at Credit Lyonnais.
Wall Street was hit on Tuesday by disappointing results from U.S. tech consulting firm Accenture Ltd and German software powerhouse SAP, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average down 0.5 percent.
South Korean stocks recovered from early falls to rise 0.1 percent.
POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steel maker, which has been excluded from Chinese anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled steel imports, gained 0.3 percent ahead of its earnings announcement.
After the market close, POSCO Co Ltd posted a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit on strong demand for steel products that outweighed higher raw material costs.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.5 percent amid growing investor worries over the return of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus.
Taiwan's TAIEX index gained more than one percent to end at a 20-month high, led by financial issues such as Cathay Financial Holdings.
Singapore stocks reversed early losses to hover 0.3 percent higher.
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