Tokyo steadies; Australian stocks down

Shares in Sony lost 2 percent by midday Thursday on tech earning jitters

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks recovered to be virtually changed at midday Thursday, after a bounce by some high-tech stocks, including NEC Corp.

The tech-sensitive Nikkei 225 stock average ended the morning down 10.80 points or 0.09 percent at 12,618.22.

The broader, capital-weighted TOPIX was down 2.36 points or 0.18 percent to 1,275.64.

Elsewhere in the region, Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 51.3 points or 1.5 percent to 3378.4.

Australian bank shares tumbled after leading bank NAB announced a $450 million provision on its U.S. mortgage service operator HomeSide Lending.

Other Asian markets mixed

VIDEO CNN's Lisa Barron with the Asian stock market update Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Other Asian markets were mixed. In Seoul, the Kospi was moving in and out of negative territory, while the NZE Top 40 index was down 4.13 points to 2047.21.

Taiwan's Taiex lost 42 points to 4697.14, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was about 30 points lower just before midday at 13,176.34.

In Japan, consumer electronics giant Sony Corp extended losses into a fourth day, partly due to Wednesday's recall of 560,000 mobile phones that Sony built for KDDI Corp's mobile unit.

Sony lost 2.18 percent to 7,630 yen at midday after falling as low as 7,550, a new six-month low.

Investors 'afraid of downside risk'

"Investors are afraid of the downside risk due to expectations that these high-tech companies may cut their earnings forecasts when they announce April-June results later this month," said Tetsuya Ishijima, chief strategist at Okasan Securities.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily reported on Thursday that Sony will spend $161 million on recalls and book most of this as a loss in the April-June quarter.

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd plunged 9.07 percent to 1,294 and became the biggest percentage loser on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section.

The diversified Japanese manufacturer late on Wednesday reported that profits for the latest half-year fell short of targets as the info-tech slump eroded earnings on electronics materials.

It is affiliated with consumer electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial, which hit a 32-month low the previous day, but managed to gain 0.48 percent to 1,876 yen Thursday.

Chip and computer maker NEC, which took the biggest beating among Japan's big five chipmaking conglomerates in the past month, climbed 1.78 percent to 1,661 yen. Rival Fujitsu Ltd gained 0.8 percent to 1,260 yen.

The real estate sector attracted buying due to widespread views the industry would benefit from the government's pledged structural reforms, including improved infrastructure in urban areas.