Nikkei rises as Asia trades in tight range


The Nikkei broke its losing streak as techs ran up, but railway stocks hurt the Topix

By staff and wire reports

HONG KONG, China -- Asian markets walked the tightrope again Friday, with Japan and Hong Kong rising to higher closes.

But investors were tentative, and Asia Pacific markets traded in an unusually tight range. Australia closed slightly down once again, and Singapore was posting losses headed toward the bell.

New Zealand rose though, and the chip-driven markets in South Korea and Taiwan both gained more than 1 percent on hopes the semiconductor industry may be bottoming out.

Nikkei breaks five day losing streak

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.35 percent to 10,383.78. That was its first closing gain after five down days.

The market got a boost out of U.S. stock movements overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average fired ahead 2.1 percent to 9,263.90. Nasdaq rose a strong 3.3 percent.

That gave tech stocks a rise, with leading chipmaker Toshiba Corp. climbing 2.7 percent to 488 yen.

Hitachi, another of Japan's Big Five chip stocks, rose 3.0 percent to end at 885 yen. Fujitsu managed a gain of 0.2 percent to 927 yen.

Specialty chip maker Rohm Co. gained 5.4 percent to 13,750 yen.

But Tokyo's main indexes were split Friday, with the broader Topix index favored by many money managers closing down 0.2 percent at 1,053.68.

Three formerly state-owned railway companies had big losses. The government decided to push ahead on Dec. 1 with a law to privatize all of the companies.

The prospect of a flood of new stock pushed down East Japan Railway, West Japan Railway and Central Japan Railway between 3.4 percent and 5.1 percent.

Hong Kong up on U.S. rate-cut prospects

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng index rose 0.27 percent to 10,186.06. It got a rise out of HSBC Holdings but was well off an early high of 10,333.88.

Hong Kong's largest listing, banking giant HSBC gained 1.46 percent to HK$86.75. There are hopes of interest rate cuts in the United States next week, which would likely translate to Hong Kong because of its currency peg to the U.S. dollar.

Most blue chips fell after rising in early trade on Wall Street's gains.

The property sector in particular remains weak, failing to respond to a series of interest rate cuts so far this year.

HKCB Bank was the biggest loser, falling 31.5 percent to HK$2.175 after announcing the sale of its commercial bank arm.

Shanghai's B share indexes fell as a department-store company preps to offer stock for the first time. That is prompting China's highly speculative punters to pull cash out of the market to invest in the offering.

Shanghai B shares fell 0.9 percent and Shenzhen, 0.8 percent. Forever Bicycle Co. also hit the B shares with a 7.4 percent drop.

Australia sags under News pressure

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index sagged 0.3 percent to 3,239.9.

News Corp., the largest stock in Sydney, was a millstone on the market, sinking 3.3 percent to A$13.39. Media watchers are waiting to see where Rupert Murdoch's company will head after losing out in its long bid for Hughes and its DirecTV broadcast subsidiary.

National Australia Bank, the country's largest, didn't help the bulls with a 2.3 percent drift to A$29.80.

But Westpac posted a rise of 1.2 percent to A$14.85, a record high, as Australia's No. 3 bank posted a net profit of A$1.9 billion.

Australia has a general election on Nov. 10, and market experts say stocks will trade in a tight range. The race is currently too close to call.

New Zealand's NZSE-40 Capital index rose 0.9 percent to 1,981.64, driven by U.S. gains.

Contact Energy hit a record high of NZ$4.19, closing 2 cents off it. Edison Mission Energy revised its offer for the 49 percent of the company it doesn't already own to NZ$4.25.

Telecom New Zealand was the most-active stock, rising 2 cents to NZ$4.62.

Chip stocks still fueling Korea and Taiwan

South Korea's benchmark Kospi index climbed 1.2 percent to 550.57. Telecom shares and financial stocks rose.

Leading cell-phone company SK Telecom lifted 1.4 percent to 249,000 won.

So too, did Samsung Electronics, the world memory chip No. 1 and Seoul's largest listing. Samsung put on 2.2 percent to 183,000 won.

But rival Hynix Semiconductor, which on Wednesday night landed a $7 billion finance package, lost 3 percent to 1,240 won.

Hynix had the heaviest turnover, and turned down at the end of the day as retail investors sold off after gaining the 15 percent maximum in Korea the two previous days.

Taiwan's Taiex index ended with a gain of 1.75 percent at 3,998.48. It had risen as much as 2.7 percent during the day on the heels of the Nasdaq performance the day before.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the largest stock in Taipei, rose 2.5 percent to T$62.50.

Rival United Microelectronics Corp. hit the daily 7 percent maximum in Taiwan, closing at T$31.10.

The United States is Taiwan's largest market, so U.S. stock movements often drive the exchange.

Singapore's Straits Times index was off 0.47 percent at 1,341.13 in late trade. Networking company Datacraft Asia was hurting Singapore techs for a second day, after its surprise profit warning on Thursday.

Singapore has elections this weekend. But the result is a foregone conclusion, with the opposition not contesting enough seats to topple the ruling People's Action Party.

In India, the Mumbai exchange was posting solid gains, up 1.4 percent in afternoon trade.

Reuters contributed to this report.