Asia higher as investors return
(CNN) -- Asian stocks closed mainly higher Thursday as investors looked for bargains following losses the day before.
Technology stocks were in demand. Taiwan's Taiex index posted the biggest gains, surging more than 2 percent, and South Korea rose 1.9 percent.
New Zealand closed at a fresh record high and there were solid gains in Singapore and Hong Kong.
But Australia slipped 0.2 percent.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 stock average finished the day up 0.46 percent to 11,060.89. On Wednesday, the index lost 1.17 percent and closed below 11,000 for the first time since May 25.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange put on 0.19 percent to 1116.85. The Topix fell 1.09 percent the day before.
The dollar is down against the Japanese yen, trading at 110.96 yen late in the Asian day.
Selected Japanese technology issues, which suffered heavy selling Wednesday, led the gains, with NEC, Hitachi and Matsushita Electric in the black. But there were further falls for big exporters Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu.
Mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, one of the market's heavyweights, ended down 2 percent to 192,000 yen. Leading carmaker Toyota slipped 0.7 percent to 4270 yen.
Big banks UFJ and Mizuho posted solid gains, but MTFG and SMFG were both more than 1 percent in the red.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.91 percent to 743.35. Hyundai Motor closed 4.24 percent higher to 46,700 won and Samsung Electronics rose 2.4 percent to 423,00 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 slipped 0.2 percent to 3538.9. The market's biggest stock, media group News Corp, was off sharply, down 3.6 percent to A$11.72 after BSkyB released results in the UK. (Full story)
New Zealand's Top 50 closed up 0.33 percent to a fresh record high of 2794.59. Telecom NZ was 0.5 percent ahead to NZ$6.19 after releasing earnings.
Taiwan's Taiex surged 2.08 percent to 5427.61 after being in the red earlier. Contract chipmakers TSMC and UMC led the turnaround with big gains.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index is 1.7 percent ahead to 1936.28. SingTel is 1.35 percent ahead to S$2.25 after posting eanings.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is up 1.17 percent to 12,424.5 heading towards the close.
Wall Street had an erratic session Wednesday.Stocks moved in the opposite direction from oil prices for much of the day, declining until early afternoon as crude climbed to $44.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. As oil fell below $43 on the way to a $42.83 close, Wall Street managed a late-session rally -- but that advance quickly fizzled.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.27, or 0.1 percent, to 10,126.51. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 4.36, or 0.2 percent, to 1,855.06. (Full story)
