Tokyo stocks mixed, Korea, HK down


Tokyo shares eased Thursday after the gains made earlier in the week

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo shares were mixed by midday Thursday, with the key Nikkei 225 index moving in and out of the red.

Markets in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong were also weaker.

Australia was down in early trade before finishing the morning marginally higher. New Zealand managed to stay in positive territory.

Investors are weighing an increasing number of reports pointing to recession ahead for key economies in the region, including Japan.

Responding to Wall Street's retreat Wednesday, the Japanese market opened weaker at 9601, then moved as high as 9727 before settling at the end of the morning session 12.95 points or 0.13 percent lower at 9628.75.

The broader, capital-weighted TOPIX index was up 0.95 points or 0.1 percent to 999.23.

Weakness among bank and tech stocks

Japan's market was weighed down by weakness in bank stocks and some techs. Sony, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba and Canon were among the early losers.


Regional interest is focused on the Japanese economy

Mizuho Holdings was down 2.3 percent to 468,000 yen, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group was down about 1.1 percent to 943,000 yen, while Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp was off about 1.5 percent to 878 yen.

But mobile telephone giant NTT DoCoMo was up 3.4 percent to 1.53 million yen on positive views about its launch of 3G services next week, while parent company NTT was up 2.3 percent to 542,000 yen.

Regional sentiment was reacting to Wall Street's performance Wednesday, where it eased after two days of gains. The Dow Jones industrial average gave up 92 points or just over 1 percent to 8,567.39, while the Nasdaq ended 2.5 percent or 37.6 points lower at 1464.04.

In Seoul, the Kospi sank slightly Thursday morning, ending the session down about 4.5 points to 468.3. Chipmaker Samsung Electronics and telcos SK Telecom and Korea Telecom all eased. Hynix Semiconductor rallied to be 10 won higher at 850 won.

Australia down marginally

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 12.3 points or 0.4 percent to 2978.7, with some banks, miner BHP and retailer Coles Myer down.

Media giant News Corp was also slightly easier.

Taiwan's Taiex was volatile, dropping almost 1.6 percent or 54 points to 3570. The island has been hard hit by natural disasters this year, with Typhoon Lekima slamming into southern Taiwan Wednesday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was off about half a percent at 9325 in late morning trade.