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Topix leads a positive Asia

Phone giant NTT DoCoMo is higher in Thursday trade in Tokyo.
Phone giant NTT DoCoMo is higher in Thursday trade in Tokyo.

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(CNN) -- Most Japanese stocks are slightly higher at midday Thursday, recovering from early falls after a down day for techs on Wall Street.

Tokyo's broad Topix index is up 0.22 percent to 1,024.82, buoyed by gains for big banks, carmakers and selected techs.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 average is just in the black, up 0.02 percent to 10,449.59, after falling to a six-week low of 10,374.90 in early trade. That comes after a 1.83 percent decline on Wednesday.

Consumer electronics giant Sony is about 1.4 percent higher, and there are solid gains too for Fujitsu, NEC Electronics and Mitsubishi Electric.

In the automotive sector, Toyota is 1.5 percent higher to 3450 yen on the back of strong quarterly earnings. Honda and Nissan are also firmer.

But mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo is down about half a percent to 222,000 yen after giving up some market share to rival KDDI.

Big banks are mainly higher, with a gain of almost 5 percent to 426,000 yen for UFJ.

Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi is about 0.5 percent higher to 841.20, and there are gains for Taiwan and New Zealand.

But Australia and Singapore are both down slightly.

South Korea's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics, is 0.4 percent higher to 511,000 won, while SK Telecom is 1.4 percent ahead to 218,500 won.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 is down 0.01 percent to 3265.1.

Media giant News Corp. is off 2.3 percent to A$11.72 in line with the U.S. moves, while airline Qantas is showing strength, up 2.3 percent to A$3.57.

National Australia Bank, which installed a new CEO earlier this week, is down 1.1 percent to A$30.66.

Taiwan's Taiex is 0.77 percent higher to 6289.41, boosted by gains for tech bellwethers TSMC and UMC. They are both about 1 percent higher.

Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.12 percent in the red at 1832.55. SingTel is about 1 percent higher to S$2.10.

The dollar is trading at 105.48 yen in Tokyo Thursday, ahead of the crucial Group of Seven (G7) financial meeting in Florida on Friday and Saturday. Earlier this week, the dollar went below 105 yen.

On Wall Street Wednesday, disappointing results from Cisco Systems and Ciena weighed on tech stocks. The Nasdaq fell 2.5 percent to 2014.14, while the Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.33 percent to 10,470.74.


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