Tokyo stocks hold onto gains

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks ended the morning higher Tuesday, with buyers picking up banks and other shares beaten down in recent sessions.

The benchmark Nikkei average added 0.37 percent or 50.91 points to 13,788.68, while the broader TOPIX index gained 0.46 percent or 6.17 points to 1,355.94. The Nikkei had given up 3.1 percent since last Tuesday.

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Elsewhere in the region, the Australian and Hong Kong markets were weaker, while stocks in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand were all stronger.

In Australia, the benchmarki S&P/ASX200 was down 9.3 points at 3410.8 in early afternoon trading, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 173.75 points at 13,565.32.

U.S. markets were closed on Monday for Memorial Day. They will reopen on Tuesday.

Japanese banks unveil bad loan problems

In Tokyo, a consensus was emerging that the market's five-day slip had run its course.

Mizuho Holdings, the world's largest bank by assets, picked up 1.91 percent to 640,000 yen, boosting both major indices.

Mizuho had plunged nearly 10 percent in the previous two sessions after earnings late last week from the sector revealed a staggering level of problem loans, rekindling fears about the health of the nation's lenders.

"The market seems to have worked the bad debt numbers out of its system for now, but a broad-based advance is still out of the question," said Hidenori Kawasaki, general manager in Kokusai Securities' equities trading division.

Japan's top eight banking groups held 17.95 trillion yen ($148 billion) in problem loans at the end of March.

Data released before the open showed Japan's industrial output falling a worse-than-expected 1.7 percent in April from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Isuzu Motors eases as job cut news sinks in

Isuzu Motors Ltd plummeted 8.28 percent to 266 yen, erasing all and more of a 3.94 percent rise in the previous session.

Shares of the light truckmaker came under pressure after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter downgraded its investment rating on Isuzu to 'underperform' from 'neutral'.

MSDW questioned whether Isuzu's latest restructuring plan, which includes slashing 26 percent of its workforce over the next three years to cut costs, would lead to a quick improvement in earnings.

Among other big moves, Sumitomo Light Metal Industries Ltd shot up 7.22 percent to 104 yen after the aluminium roller said on Monday it expects group net profit to jump 533 percent to 2.5 billion yen for the year to March 2002.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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