Asian stocks dip toward noon
January 9, 2002 Posted: 11:57 AM HKT (0357 GMT)
asia.cnn.com
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who turned 60 yesterday, has started his five-nation tour of Southeast Asia
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HONG KONG, China -- Asian stocks fell slightly heading toward afternoon trade on Wednesday, except for Taiwan, which scored fresh nine-month highs.
The benchmark Nikkei ended the morning down 0.07 percent at 10,687.68, following overnight weakness on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.46 percent on Tuesday, closing at 10,150.55, while Nasdaq rose 0.92 percent, to 2,055.74.
In Tokyo, the broader Topix lost 0.73 percent to 1,024.20 at noon, after falling 2.21 percent, the day before.
The yen also hit 133.37, a new 3-year weak level against the U.S. dollar.
Korean stocks virtually flat
Banks were slipping in Japan, over uncertainty with government plans for dealing with bad debts.
Mizuho, the biggest bank in the world by assets, fell 3.45 percent to 280,000 yen.
Troubled supermarket chain Daiei rocketed its daily limit of 30 yen to 105 yen, a 40 percent jump on a Mainichi Shimbun report its creditors are backing a debt-writeoff plan.
On Tuesday, Daiei inked a deal to sell most of its A.S.S. security service to U.S. venture capital comany Carlyle Group for $27.2 million.
In other markets, the South Korean benchmark Kospi was virtually flat at 12:30 p.m. local time, down 0.22 percent to 733.16, while the Kosdaq was off 0.31 percent at 75.12.
Traders, however, expect the market to go up later in the day as chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor continues to gain on expectations of a pending alliance with U.S. rival Micron Technology.
Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton arrived in Seoul late on Monday for talks.
In Australia, the stock market was pushed slightly lower in afternoon trade after some selling in heavyweight News Corp.
The main Australia index, the S&P/ASX 200, slipped 0.23 percent to 3,415.1 around 2:30 p.m. local time.
But shares were a touch firmer in New Zealand, buoyed by a rise in Telecom Crop New Zealand, the biggest stock. The NZSE-40 Capital index was ahead 0.1 percent at 2,084.
Nine-month high
Taiwan stocks scored fresh nine-month highs by midmorning, with technology shares lifting the market after a brief round of profit-taking in the previous session.
Just before 11:30 a.m. local time, the Taiex was up 1.13 percent, at 5,875.69, with an almost 2 percent rise in the electronics subindex leading the charge.
Taiwan's main index was just below its intraday high of 5915.42, its best level in nine months.
Hong Kong stocks were down 1.32 percent, putting the Hang Seng at 11,559.54, just before 11:30 a.m. local time.
Singapore's market was also off, the Straits Times index down 0.6 percent at 1,693.37 at the same time. |
