| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asia posts a mixed day
HONG KONG, China -- Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday, with Japanese and Korean stocks recovering from early falls but Hong Kong knocked by virus fears. Investors picked up blue chips that were hammered the day before in Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei. Singapore was the region's biggest gainer, thanks to a rebound in shares of banks and Singapore Airlines. But Australia and New Zealand followed Wall Street into the red, while Hong Kong's index slipped to four-and-a-half year lows on concern over the spread of the deadly SARS virus. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 posted a meager rise of 0.18 percent to 7,986.72 after diving 3.7 percent in the previous session, its worst one-day fall in five months. The broader Topix Index edged up 0.12 percent to 788.96. Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor climbed 1.33 percent to 2,670 yen after tumbling six percent on Monday to a seven-year closing low. Other blue chips that were battered on Monday, such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba and Sanyo also ended firmer. Fujitsu added 1.56 percent to 325 yen after announcing a flash memory tie-up with U.S. firm AMD. (Full story) Japanese mobile phone giant NTT Docomo provided another boost to the market with a rise of 1.81 percent to 225,000 yen. "We saw some bargain hunting today after Monday's excessive drop. But with so many negative external factors out there, we should find no real optimism from these gains," Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments told Reuters. Before the start of trade in Tokyo, the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey showed that sentiment at large manufacturers worsened to an index level of minus 10 in March from minus 9 in December. But there was a brighter reading in the large non-manufacturing sector, where sentiment improved slightly, up from minus 16 in December to minus 14 in March. The results were broadly in line with market expectations, with analysts predicting unchanged figures of minus 9 and minus 16 respectively for big manufacturers and big non-manufacturers. (Full story) Electronics maker Sony was a notable loser in Tuesday's session, falling 2.14 percent to 4,110 yen. Japanese mega banks also ended in the red on the first day of the new fiscal year. Mizuho Holdings tumbled 8.06 percent to a record low of 89,000 yen, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shed 5.19 percent to end at 201,000 yen. South Korea up
In Seoul, the benchmark Kospi reversed earlier losses to finish 0.53 percent higher at 538.56. Analysts attribute the late turnaround to overseas investors who bought futures in blue chips. SK Telecom was one of the beneficiaries, rising 3.58 percent to 158,500 won. South Korean investors shrugged off a report by a Japanese news agency that North Korea had fired a ship-to-ship missile early in the day. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics closed unchanged at 284,000 won, while major exporter Hyundai Motor fell 3.96 percent to 23,050 won. Korean Air Lines added 2.21 percent to 9,710 won after taking a beating on Monday in response to concerns about the travel impact of the SARS virus. Shares of Taiwan's top two carriers also avoided a repeat performance of Monday's sell off, which saw them fall by the daily seven percent limit. China Airlines fell only 1.67 percent to T$11.80, and rival Eva Airways slipped 2.44 percent to T$10.00. Taiwan's benchmark Taiex index finished up 0.38 percent at 4,337.61, as state fund buying offset the impact of overnight losses in U.S. and European markets. On Monday, London's FTSE 100 lost 2.57 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.9 percent to 7992.13 in New York. (Full story) In Australia, the S&P ASX 200 index ended down 0.1 percent at 2,882.2. Companies with exposure to global economic uncertainties were the main losers. Media giant News Corp fell 1.3 percent to A$10.63, while mining firm BHP Billiton dropped 2.26 percent to A$9.07. The market's losses were limited by gains in banking shares. National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ and CBA all rose by one to two percent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed at 8596.89, a drop of 0.44 percent and the lowest since October 1998. Banking leader HSBC was unchanged at HK$80.25, as was Cheung Kong Holdings at HK$43.20. Cathay Pacific rose 1.58 percent. Singapore's Straits Times index was up 1.16 percent to 1282.58 at the close. SingTel was one of the biggest gainers, up 3 percent. Singapore Airlines was up 1.7 percent and banks DBS and UOB were also higher. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
