Japan, South Korea close higher
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Phone giant NTT DoCoMo closed 1.8 percent lower in Tokyo Thursday.
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(CNN) -- Key Asian markets have closed slightly higher Thursday, recovering from early falls after a down day for techs on Wall Street.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all rose, with Seoul's Kospi doing best with a gain of about 0.65 percent.
But Hong Kong and Singapore are slightly lower and Australia and New Zealand finished just in the red.
Tokyo's broad Topix index closed 0.28 percent higher at 1025.48, buoyed by gains for big banks, carmakers and selected techs.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 average ended just in the black, up 0.17 percent to 10,464.60, after falling to a six-week low of 10,374.90 in early trade. That came after a 1.83 percent decline on Wednesday.
Consumer electronics giant Sony closed 1.68 percent higher at 4230 yen, and there were solid gains too for Fujitsu, Toshiba and NEC Electronics. But NEC eased about 1 percent.
In the automotive sector, Toyota jumped 2.65 percent higher to 3490 yen on the back of strong quarterly earnings and higher sales forecasts. (Full story)
Honda and Nissan were also firmer, with gains of 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.
But mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo was down 1.8 percent to 218,000 yen after posting third-quarter results and giving up some market share to rival KDDI. (Full story)
Big banks were mainly higher, with a gain of 7.1 percent to 435,000 yen for UFJ and 2.4 percent to 294,000 yen for Mizuho.
Airlines were in demand, with JAL up 4 percent and ANA ahead 3.2 percent.
South Korea's Kospi finished 0.65 percent higher to 840.92.
Seoul's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics, closed 0.6 percent higher to 512,000 won, while SK Telecom was 1.16 percent ahead to 218,000 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was down 0.11 percent to 3262.0.
Media giant News Corp. was off 2.08 percent to A$11.75 in line with the U.S. moves, while resources giant BHP jumped 2.86 percent higher to A$11.50. Airline Qantas also showed strength, up 1.43 percent to A$3.54.
National Australia Bank, which installed a new CEO earlier this week, was down 1.3 percent to A$30.60. (Full story)
Taiwan's Taiex put on 0.43 percent to 6268.14, boosted by gains for some techs. But chip foundry TSMC was flat at T$62.50 and UMC eased a third of a percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is 0.33 percent lower at 13,043.86, with a similar fall for big bank HSBC. China Mobile is steady at HK$24.85, while PCCW and Hutchison Whampoa are both about 0.8 percent higher.
Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.12 percent in the red at 1832.59. SingTel, which delivered a strong third-quarter performance Thursday, is steady at S$2.08.
New Zealand's Top 50 eased 0.05 percent to 2431.38, despite a slight gain for the market's biggest stock, Telecom NZ. It rose 0.36 percent to NZ$5.55 after posting interim results and flagging a bigger dividend. (Full story)
The dollar is trading at 105.48 yen in Tokyo late 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. (Full story)
