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Japan pushes Asia to higher close
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian markets closed higher on Tuesday, with bargain chasers in Japan pushing the Nikkei well above the 20-year closing low it reached on Monday. The Nikkei 225 average finished the day with a solid gain of 1.12 percent to 7838.83. The broader Topix index did even better, up 1.63 percent to 788.24, with blue chips Sony and Toyota among the biggest gainers. Other Asian markets also firmed, with South Korea's Kospi doing best. It put on about 1.8 percent. Australia added almost 1 percent and New Zealand rose 1.23 percent. Hong Kong and Singapore, two of the region's transportation hubs, were up. Investors for the moment seem to have shrugged off the impact of the SARS virus, which has been hitting airline stocks in particular. The Asian gains followed a boost from Wall Street, which ended almost 2 percent higher on Monday as companies such as Citigroup posted positive earnings news. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.8 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite put on 1.9 percent. (Full story) The Nikkei's close of 7752.10 on Monday was its lowest since November 17, 1982, when it ended at 7740.10. Selling by corporate pension funds has been weighing on the market, but bargain hunters now are seen entering as buyers. Consumer electronics giant Sony rose 2.62 percent to 3910 yen, while leading carmaker Toyota Motor jumped 3.63 percent to 2570 yen, rebounding from Monday's seven-year low. Nissan Motor rose 4.33 percent to 844 yen after UBS Warburg raised its operating profit estimate for Nissan for this year and the next two years. Tech-related stocks showed strong gains, with Hitachi up 5.44 percent to 407 yen and Fujitsu up 4.3 percent to 315 yen. Toshiba, Kyocera, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sanyo also posted good rises. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, finished 3.49 percent higher at 237,000 yen. Some of the big banks opened weaker, with Mizuho touching a fresh record low of 66,400 yen before finishing with a 1.62 percent gain to 69,200 yen. UFJ put on half a percent to 98,000 yen and SMFG jumped 3.85 percent to 189,000 yen. Kospi above 600
In Seoul, the Kospi rose 1.78 percent higher to 604.99, after cracking the 600 level on Monday for the first time since February 25. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics ended 3.68 percent higher at 296,000 won. Big exporter Hyundai Motor also was firmer, up 2.2 percent to 27,550 won. There were even stronger gains for KT Corp and steelmaker Posco. Kookmin Bank, the country's biggest lender, finished 2.2 percent higher at 34,700 won. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 closed 0.955 percent higher at 2968.8, boosted by another strong gain for media group News Corp and resources leader BHP Billiton. News was up 2 percent to A$11.14 and BHP was 1.6 percent higher at A$9.52. But newspaper group John Fairfax plunged almost 5 percent to A$2.88 as the market digested its $645 million purchase of newspaper assets in New Zealand. ( Full story) Financial services group AMP rose 3.4 percent to A$7.61 after it announced sales of some of its businesses on Monday to HSBC and GE. (Full story) New Zealand's Top 50 was 1.23 percent higher at 2006.12. Carter Holt Harvey was up 3 percent, Telecom NZ rose half a percent but Air New Zealand ended in the red. In Taiwan, the Taiex was 0.62 percent higher at 4487.59, with U.S. gains on Monday helping to push chip foundries TSMC and UMC higher, each gaining 2.5 percent. In Singapore, the Straits Times index is up 0.45 percent to 1288.45. There are gains for Singapore Airlines and SingTel. Leading bank DBS is flat at S$8.85. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index finished 1.15 percent higher at 8632.10. Big bank HSBC and conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa posted good gains, while China Mobile was 1.95 percent higher at HK$15.65. PCCW, which struck a refinancing agreement with banks on Monday for its 50-50 Reach venture with Telstra, fell half a percent to HK$4.50. (Full story) Airline Cathay Pacific rose 3 percent to HK$8.65.
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