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Asia hangs onto winning ways
(CNN) -- Asian markets again rose Thursday after another big day on Wall Street. But strong early gains fizzled out, with the Nikkei putting on just 0.34 percent. At one point in morning trade the Nikkei jumped 3 percent to 9896 -- its highest level since August 28 last year -- before easing to finish the day at 9624.80. That was still its highest close since September 19. The broader Topix index rose 0.76 percent to 952.44. NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, ended 2.17 percent higher and consumer electronics leader Sony closed up 2.2 percent Big banks UFJ and Mizuho gave up some of Wednesday's double-digit gains, easing 4 percent and 8 percent respectively. In Seoul, the Kospi finished 0.15 percent higher, with Samsung Electronics up 3 percent. Australia's market threw off the losses of recent days with a gain of 0.43 percent, helped by a small rise for market heavyweight News Corp. Taiwan's tech stocks were firmer, but the Taiex ended flat. Singapore and Hong Kong were slightly higher, while New Zealand slipped 0.24 percent. The moves in Asia followed a strong showing on Wall Street Wednesday, where the Dow put on 1.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped more than 2.3 percent. (Full story) The rise in Japan was the third straight day of gains after the Bank of Japan's quarterly survey of business sentiment showed a better than expected result on Tuesday. That is helping to boost investor confidence in the economy. (Full story) Along with Sony's rise to 3720 yen, Matsushita Electric Industrial jumped 6.75 percent, Canon was up almost 5 percent, Hitachi finished 6.4 percent ahead and Fujitsu put on 4.4 percent. NEC added another 3.7 percent, lifting its gains so far this year to 63 percent. Automakers were also firmer, with Toyota up 4.4 percent and Honda showing a gain of 3 percent. Nissan rose 3.9 percent. There were falls for some industrial stocks, with Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel and JFE all lower. Kawasaki Heavy was also in the red. In Seoul, the Kospi finished at 686.83, its highest since December 23. SK Telecom was up about 0.25 percent but big bank Shinhan eased to finish 2.3 percent lower. Australia's S&P/ASX200 closed up at 3044.8, with gains for resources leaders Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Big bank NAB rose 1 percent to A$34.11, as the Australian dollar continued to trade at a five-year high of 68 U.S. cents. Troubled insurer and funds manager AMP recovered a little, up 3.6 percent to A$5.08. Energy retailer AGL lost 1 percent after announcing a bid for a power station. (Full story) In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished 0.45 percent higher at 9646.10. HSBC was up 0.8 percent to HK$92.50, while PCCW ended flat and China Mobile closed 0.27 percent higher at HK$18.80. Taiwan's Taiex closed unchanged at 5095.31, after the market initially was buoyed by techs. Market heavyweight TSMC finished up 1.7 percent to T$61.00 and rival chip foundry UMC rose 3 percent to T$24.10. In Singapore, the Straits Times index ended 0.39 percent higher at 1,482.93. UOB Bank closed up 0.79 percent while Singapore Airlines and SingTel finished in the red, down 1 and 1.96 percent respectively.. New Zealand's Top 50 ended down 0.24 percent at 2192.34. Telecom NZ was flat at NZ$5.19.
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