Tokyo stocks weaker at midday


Mizuho Holdings and other bank stocks were weaker Monday

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks were weaker by midday Monday as investors grew more cautious about interim earnings reports due this week.

Banks such as Mizuho Holdings were also easier after September industrial production was down 2.9 percent month-on-month, in a further pointer to an economy in distress.

Last Friday saw a surprise loss warning from leading chipmaker Toshiba Corp. Canon, JVC and Oki Electric will report later Monday.

By midday the benchmark Nikkei 225 average was down 24.61 points or 0.23 percent to 10,770.55, after dipping as low as 10,743.

The broader capital-weighted TOPIX index dropped 9.7 points or 0.73 percent to 1,093.22.

Korea up, Hong Kong down sharply

Other markets in the region were mixed, with Korea's Kospi up 1.26 percent to 550.28 and Australia's S&P/ASX200 virtually flat, off 2.6 points to 3273.6.

Hong Kong was down sharply, with the Hang Seng index off 210 points or 2 percent to 10,194 in late morning trade.

In Australia, News Corp, the biggest stock on the market, was down almost 5 percent to Aust$13.89 by midday after News withdrew its long-running bid for U.S. satellite broadcaster Hughes Electronics.

In Seoul, market heavyweight SK Telecom was up more than 5 percent to 248,500 won.

KT Telecom, which owns more than 13 percent of SK Telecom, said it itends to sell part of that stake before the end of the year.

Hynix Semiconductor was also up about 5 percent to 985 won.


Toshiba was down 3.5 percent by midday Monday after Friday's earnings warning

New Zealand's Top 40 was up about 1 percent, putting on 19.17 points to 1954.68.

Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker, lost 3.53 percent to 492 yen, adding to Friday's 4.67 percent fall.

Other computer and chipmakers were mixed, with Hitachi down 4 percent to 870 yen, NEC up slightly to 1244 yen and Fujitsu unchanged at 962 yen.

Daiwa Securities, Japan's second-largest broker, slumped 5.21 percent to 874 yen.

Mizuho, UFJ both weaker

Among the leading banking stocks, Mizuho Holdings was down 3.5 percent to 379,000 yen, while UFJ was down 3.2 percent to 542,000 yen.

A factor keeping investors from buying aggressively was the Nikkei's failure to stay above the 11,000 mark, which it briefly breached last week, analysts told Reuters news agency.

"The Nikkei is likely to stay around the recent range of 10,500-11,000 for the time being," Hidenori Kawasaki, equities general manager at Kokusai Securities, said.

September industrial output data, released before the market opened, came in slightly weaker than expected, showing a 2.9 percent month-on-month fall.

Inventory data, however, fell 1.3 percent month-on-month, compared with a 0.3 percent rise in August.

"This (inventory) figure comes as a bit of relief. But all this data really tells us is, including the 2.9 percent drop in output, is that economy is still in tough shape," said Juichi Wako, analyst at Nomura Securities' investment strategy department.

Internet investor Softbank Corp was down 7 percent to 2780 yen It said late on Friday it would fall into the red for April-September with a net loss of 55 billion yen ($448.4 million), against a profit of 36.31 billion a year earlier.

Japan's weaker performance followed another mixed day on Wall Street. In New York Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 82.27, or 0.9 percent, to 9,545.17, while the Nasdaq composite index was down 6.51 points or 0.37 percent at 1,768.96.

Reuters contributed to this report.