Nikkei rides Shinsei IPO optimism
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Shinsei Bank jumped 57 percent on its Tokyo market debut Thursday.
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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese stocks have closed solidly higher Thursday, buoyed by a strong market debut from Shinsei Bank.
Most other Asian markets also notched up gains.
The Nikkei 225 average closed 0.72 percent ahead to 10,753.80, after earlier going above 10,800 for the first time since February 3. On Wednesday, the Nikkei gave up early gains to close 0.23 percent lower.
The broader Topix finished 0.62 percent higher to 1063.13.
Shinsei, the first bank in Japan to be floated on the market after being nationalized in 1998 and then sold off to a private equity fund, finished at 827 yen, 57 percent above its IPO price of 575 yen.
Most other banks finished in the red, though Mizuho put on 0.3 percent to 321,000 yen.
On the currency front, the dollar traded firmer at 106.76 yen in Tokyo late in the day. Against the euro Wednesday, it touched a record low of $1.2925 in Europe before recovering later to $1.2708. (Full story)
The Australian dollar, which touched a seven-year high of 80.02 U.S. cents Wednesday, traded at 79.05 U.S. cents.
On other equity markets in the region, there were solid gains for Taiwan and South Korea, while New Zealand finished in the red and Australia closed virtually flat. Singapore is slightly higher.
In Tokyo, Yahoo Japan gained after announcing a 2 for 1 share split earlier this week. It closed up 3.2 percent to 1.92 million yen.
Consumer electronics leader Sony was another strong performer, finished 3.4 percent higher to 4530 yen and Canon was 3 percent ahead to 5230 yen. Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hitachi and NEC were all solidly in the black.
Automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan also jumped, with Nissan up 2.3 percent and Honda 2 percent firmer.
Mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo closed 4.4 percent higher to 235,000 yen on continued optimism about the benefits flowing from its 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless, the target of a $41 billion takeover from U.S. rival Cingular. (Full story)
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 ended 0.09 percent higher at 3351.1. News Corp. and Telstra were both in the red.
Resources leader BHP Billiton, which reported a 30 percent gain in interim net profit of $1.21 billion, closed up 1.4 percent to A$12.20. (Full story)
Another blue chip stock to report first half earnings Thursday was Qantas Airways. It closed 3.86 percent higher at A$3.77 after posting interim net profit of A$357.8 million, a gain of 1.5 percent. (Full story)
In Seoul, the Kospi ended 0.52 percent ahead to 881.65, helped by gains for SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics. Samsung said it expected to sell 17 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2004. (Full story)
Leading bank Shinhan was again higher, up 2.7 percent to 23,000 won.
In Taiwan, the Taiex finished 1.15 percent ahead to 6681.52. Techs did well, with gains of 0.65 percent for chip foundry UMC and 0.8 percent for the market's biggest stock TSMC.
Singapore's Straits Times is virtually steady at 1887.67. SingTel, which made good ground on Wednesday, is up 1.3 percent to S$2.33.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down about 0.37 percent to 13,877.25 near the close. HSBC is giving back some of Wednesday's gains.
In New Zealand, the Top 50 closed just 0.02 percent in the red at 2434.25. Air New Zealand was steady and Telecom NZ rose 0.18 percent.
The moves in Asia came after a weaker day on Wall Street Wednesday, with the Dow slipping 0.4 percent to 10,671.99 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq easing 0.2 percent to 2076.47.
