Asia closes in bullish mood
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Toyota closed 1.72% higher Friday after lifting its global sales forecast.
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(CNN) -- Asian markets closed mainly higher Friday, with only Tokyo's Nikkei dipping into the red.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng led the charge, rising almost 2 percent just before its close on the back of a late rally in property stocks.
Strong fiscal results for bellwethers in Singapore kept its bourse bubbling while Australia retained its cautiously optimistic outlook with a small climb.
Gains on Wall Street Thursday were not enough to convince investors in Japan, who maintain concerns about the value of the yen against a weak dollar.
Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 average closed just in the red, down 0.04 percent at 10,460.92, despite gains for techs such as Fujitsu and Hitachi.
But the broader Topix index closed 0.33 percent higher to 1028.83.
Consumer electronics leader Sony and office equipment bellwether Canon finished slightly in the red.
The Nikkei index hit a six-week low of 10,374.90 Thursday, down more than seven percent from its close on January 20.
Toyota Motor Corp, the world's second-biggest auto maker, was up 1.72 percent to 3,550 yen a day after it posted a huge jump in quarterly profits, prompting it to lift its earnings forecasts for the full year.(Full story)
But Nissan was in the red while Honda edged 0.45 percent higher.
Big banks were higher on reports their bad loan situation is improving. Mizuho was up 1 percent to 297,000 yen and SMFG ended 1.5 percent higher to 537,000 yen.
The Nihon Keizai business daily reported bad loans at the top seven banks fell in the three months to December.
NTT Data Corp., a unit of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., climbed 2.53 percent after leaving its full-year earnings forecasts unchanged.
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic brand electronics, posted a 48 percent rise in quarterly operating profit Friday on the back of brisk sales of plasma televisions, DVD recorders and mobile phones.
Matsushita posted an operating profit of 70.94 billion yen ($670.7 million) for the three months ended December 31, beating analyst's consensus estimate of 65.4 billion yen and exceeding last year's third-quarter profit of 42.78 billion yen.
South Korea's Kospi closed up 1.11 percent to 850.23 points.
Samsung Electronics closed 2.93 percent higher. It was also a good day for Hyundai Motor, which jumped 2.3 percent. However, SK Telecom retreated 2.75 percent.
Singapore Telecommunications, on the back of its strong results Thursday, finished 3.40 percent higher at S$2.15.(Full story)
Its bullish run has helped the Straits Times index, which closed 1.23 percent higher at 1856.39.
Singapore Airlines was up 1.79 percent to S$11.40, also buoyed by strong earnings. (Full story)
Taiwan's Taiex index was also higher, up 1.35 percent at 6353.39 points. One of the biggest winners was semiconductor company United Micro Electronics, which rose 2.69 percent to T$30.50.
China Mobile was one of the biggest winners on the Hang Seng just before closing. The company had risen 2.63 percent to HK$25.30.
The index continues its strong finish to the week, rising 2 percent to 13,292.39 on the back of a late rally for property stocks.
Australian stocks revived in late afternoon trading. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.31 percent 3272.2.
Investors were cheered by positive analyst reports on AMP, which rose 1.7 percent to A$4.40. Its former UK subsidiary HHG was also in positive territory, rising to A$1.06.
But market heavyweight News Corp eased slightly by 0.17 percent to A$11.73.
Resources giant Rio Tinto shed 1.18 percent to A$35.24 while BHP Billiton fell 0.78 percent to A$11.41.
The banking sector was mixed. The CBA firmed 0.63 percent percent to $30.59, St George Bank moved 1.64 percent percent higher to $19.82 and Westpac moved marginally, up 0.06 percent to $16.34.
But the NAB lost 0.56 percent to close at $30.43 and the ANZ also fell 0.56 percent to $17.65.
The New Zealand bourse is closed Friday for a national holiday.
Earlier on Wall Street Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.24 per cent to close at 10,495.55 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq moved 0.27 per cent higher to 2019.56.(Full story)
