Japan joins Korea, HK in the black


Tokyo's sharemarket shrugged off gloomy jobless figures Friday to end higher

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks reversed early losses to close modestly higher Friday, as tech gains outweighed the gloom of a record 5.4 percent unemployment rate in October.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 average closed 41.48 points or 0.39 percent higher at 10,697.44, while the broader capital-weighted Topix was flat, up 2.07 points or 0.2 percent to 1050.57.

Japanese tech stocks such as Sony, Toshiba and NEC strengthened, but big banks and leading automakers were lower.

Along with the bad jobless figures, other economic data released Friday morning showed Japan's core consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.7 percent in the same period, dropping for the 25th straight month.

Most Asian markets higher

Most other Asian markets were also higher, with Korea the best performer, up 2.4 percent. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics led the way, putting on 8000 won or 3.8 percent to 218,000 won. Hynix Semiconductor jumped 4.6 percent to 2145 won.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was also up strongly, putting on 188.51 points or 1.7 percent to 11,279.25. That came ahead of third-quarter GDP data expected to show Hong Kong is in recession.

Diversified conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa was one of the best of the bluchips, adding HK$2.25 or 3.2 percent to HK$72.25. China Mobile and China Unicom also made good gains.

In Singapore, the Straits Times index was up about 1.65 percent to 1478 heading towards the close. The big three of DBS, SingTel and Singapore Airlines were all higher. UOB put on 4.6 percent to S$11.40.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 7.9 points or 0.24 percent to 3337.4 amid gains by key resources stocks including BHP. Takeover target Normandy again closed higher at A$1.60.

Telstra and other telcos rose, while market heavyweight News Corp put on 21 cents or 1.45 percent to A$14.70. But big banks fell.

NZ, Taiwan slip back

In New Zealand, the NZSE Top 40 slipped just into the red, down 1.05 points to 2075.07 after being in the black for most of the day.

Taiwan, where most interest was on the election this weekend, was the only other big market to finish in the red, down 24.7 points or 0.55 percent to 4441.12.

On Wall Street, the Enron debacle was not enough to keep U.S. stocks from closing higher Thursday, after orders for durable goods logged their biggest gain on record in October.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.21 percent at 9,829.42, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 2.4 percent to 1,933.26.

In Tokyo, tech stocks were generally higher. Consumer electronics giant Sony rose 60 yen to 5810 yen, while computer and chipmakers Toshiba, NEC and Hitachi were also higher.

But rival Fujitsu dipped 0.2 percent to 1018 yen. It said Friday morning it would close its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Oregon by January due to the continuing slump in the global semiconductor market.

Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc, whose weighting in the MSCI will rise sharply from November 1 under new free-float criteria, was unchanged at 1.62 million yen.

Automakers were weaker. Market leader Toyota fell 2.48 percent to 3150 yen. Nissan was down 0.33 percent to 608 yen and third-ranked Honda slipped 0.43 percent to 4670 yen.

Big banks were also down, with Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, losing 2.5 percent to 310,000 yen. Rival UFJ was unchanged at 407,000 yen, but MTFG was off 1.63 percent to 843,000 yen.

Dentsu Inc, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, made its debut Friday at 420,000 yen, giving it a market capitalization of 584.2 billion yen and making it one of Japan's largest stock offerings this year.

It ended bid-only at 470,000 yen for a gain or 50,000 yen or almost 12 percent.

Reuters contributed to this report.