Asian holds ground, Tokyo back up


Memory-chip stocks are facing pressure from a U.S. probe into possible antitrust activity among four market leaders

staff and wire reports

HONG KONG, China -- Asia stocks bounced back on Thursday after the previous day's heavy selloff, with Japan and other markets surging back from losses in afternoon trade.

Markets had braced Thursday for further falls after reports of a wider U.S. probe into alleged collusion among semiconductor manufacturers -- including at least five companies in Asia (full story).

Most markets opened in the red. But Hong Kong and Taiwan managed modest gains by the close and Singapore is up.

In Seoul, home to memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, the Kospi squeezed just into the black after Wednesday's 4 percent fall.

Like Korea, Australia was virtually unchanged, down just 0.01 percent. New Zealand eased 0.4 percent.

Nikkei, Topix gain

Japan came back strongest to close as top performer in the region. In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 average put on 1.31 percent to close at 10,612.98.


Toshiba, one of the World Cup's lead sponsors, is up after it confirmed talks with rival Fujitsu on a possible combination

On Wednesday, it had dropped 3.36 percent, its biggest fall this year.

The broader capital-weighted Topix index added 1.06 percent, to close at 1,022.97. It lost 2.8 percent the day before.

Investors in Japan shrugged off economic fears Thursday and a U.S. fall the day before. Instead they piled back into select chipmakers, including Toshiba and Fujitsu, who confirmed the details of their alliance after Wednesday's close (full story).

Toshiba was up 3.4 percent, Fujitsu added 0.12 percent, Hitachi put on 2 percent and consumer electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial rose 2.3 percent.

Banks were again mixed. Mizuho, still smarting from the warning it got over its computer glitches in April, slipped 0.75 percent to 263,000 yen. UFJ was also a little easier.

But SMBC added 1.7 percent and MTFG rose 2 percent.

Sharp knock for Wall St

Tokyo's performance was in contrast to Wall Street, which took a sharp knock on Wednesday (Wall St. close).

The Tokyo market initially dipped after the U.S. Secret Service evacuated the White House with an unidentified plane in the air over Washington, D.C. (White House evacuation). But it stabilized and climbed in the afternoon.

In South Korea the Kospi index finished 0.06 percent at 776.81.

The market has faced selling pressure after the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating possible price fixing among memory-chip manufacturers.

The probe includes Samsung Electronics, which finished 2.15 percent lower at 341,000 won.

Samsung rival Hynix Semiconductor told CNN its U.S. operation is being investigated. But Hynix denied it has violated antitrust laws.

The Korean company also told CNN that its Korean operations are not under scrutiny. Stock in the embattled chip company closed unchanged at 290 won.

Steel maker POSCO is up 3.2 percent to 144,500 won with a report circulating that it will raise prices in July. A spokesman said a decision has not been reached.

Taiwan adds almost 1% despite probe

In Taiwan, the Taiex closed 0.86 percent higher at 5,445.77. That was strongly at odds with Nasdaq's 3.0 percent fall on Wednesday.

Two chipmakers Winbond Electronics and Nanya Technologies said Thursday they had received subpoenas from U.S. authorities in the Department of Justice probe. Both stocks lost ground.

Taiwan's market heavyweight, chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., finished unchanged at T$68.50 after slipping 3 percent to T$66.00 in early trade.

Its smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp. lost 1.43 percent to T$41.40.

Sydney bounces into black

In Australia, News Corp. added almost 1.0 percent to A$11.49 after an early decline. Telecom leader Telstra was steady at A$4.58, while big banks weakened.

Resources major BHP Billiton lost 1 cent to A$10.25 and Rio Tinto added 6 cents to A$34.75.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed 0.76 percent higher at 10,754.41.

Cell-phone provider China Unicom was down 3 percent to HK$6.55, near a record low. Its expensive CDMA network is not catching on with customers as fast as analysts predicted.

Property stocks did better. Sun Hung Kai Properties added 3.1 percent to HK$58.25.

Singapore's Straits Times index is up 0.52 percent to 1,572.68 shortly before the close.