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Korea, Taiwan offset Japan's fall
(CNN) -- Japanese stocks again closed lower on Monday but other Asian markets including South Korea and Taiwan have posted gains. Markets started the week on a subdued note after Wall Street's lower close on Friday, but confidence picked up in some sectors as the day wore on. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average finished down 0.04 percent to 10,276.64, with declines for some blue-chips such as Honda. That comes after the Nikkei slipped 0.79 percent in Friday's session to end a four-day winning run. The broader Topix index was off 0.64 percent to 997.80, after closing above 1000 for the previous three trading days. Stocks in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand were also down, though falls were muted. Taiwan's Taiex continued to set fresh 14-month highs, faring best in the region with a gain of 0.7 percent. South Korea's Kospi put on 0.27 percent and Hong Kong added 0.03 percent -- still enough to reach a 13-month high. The moves in Asia came after Wall Street eased on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing 0.79 percent lower at 9348.87 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipping 0.69 percent to 1765.32. (Full story) Investors in Japan bought some tech-related stocks such as Advantest following an upbeat forecast from U.S. chip giant Intel last week. Advantest, which makes chip testing devices, closed 1.7 percent higher to 7590 yen and Tokyo Electron was up 1.3 percent to 7650 yen. Consumer electronics leader Sony ended down 0.5 percent to 3830 yen and there were heavier falls too for Canon, Kyocera, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sanyo. Newly listed NEC Electronics surged 14 percent higher to 8070 yen ahead of its entry to the Topix index. Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo was down 1 percent to 308,000 yen while Japan Telecom fell 1.9 percent to 361,000 yen as the market continued to digest last week's announcement of a buyout by Ripplewood. Big automaker Honda was down sharply, off 2 percent to 4750 yen, and market leader Toyota slipped 1.8 percent lower to 3240 yen. In Australia, the S&P/ASX ended down 0.25 percent to 3176.4. News Corp finished slightly in the red at A$12.60, while insurer and funds manager AMP added 3.2 percent to A$4.86. Big telco Telstra, which reports earnings Thursday, was 0.2 percent higher at A$4.71 and resources giant BHP Billiton was down 0.4 percent to A$10.58. Big retailer Woolworths, which posted a full year net profit of A$609.5 million, finished up 0.4 percent to A$12.08. (Full story) In Seoul, the Kospi put on 0.27 percent to 756.73. Big mobile phone operator SK Telecom ended 0.5 percent ahead to 190,000 won. Hyundai Motor added 0.4 percent to 39,150 won and Samsung Electronics eased slightly from its record highs of last week to close at 443,000 won. In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 0.71 percent to 5686.85. Market heavyweight TSMC rose 0.8 percent to T$64.50 while rival chip foundry UMC surged 5.4 percent to T$27.20. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished 0.03 percent higher at 10,764.22 after closing at a 13-month high Friday. There were solid gains for conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa to HK$57.25, while PCCW and China Mobile were unchanged. Bank HSBC slipped 0.5 percent to HK$100.00. In Singapore, the Straits Times index fell from 13-month highs, slipping 0.60 percent to 1,630.39. United Overseas Bank lost 2.0 percent, OCBC dipped 1.8 percent while DBS Group rose 1.5 percent to S$13.20.
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