Nikkei up, but big banks struggle


Tokyo's market bounced back a little on Tuesday from Monday's sharp fall, but banks were still weak

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks recovered slightly from Monday's sharp fall in early trade Tuesday, as heightened optimism in the technology sector offset some of the gloom among Japanese banks.

But the collapse of U.S. energy trader Enron Corp. continued to weigh heavily on the big banks, with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group down almost 4 percent to 808,000 yen, UFJ down 4.6 percent to 350,000 yen and Mizuho Holdings off more than 4.8 percent to 277,000 yen.

Still, the benchmark Nikkei 225 average was able to climb 72.05 points or 0.7 percent to 10,442.67 in early trade, while the broader capital-weighted TOPIX index was down 2.69 points or 0.25 percent or 14 points to 1026.72.

On Monday the Nikkei had tumbled more than 3 percent, the sharpest fall in the region.

Fujitsu, NEC and Canon were among selected technology stocks to rise Tuesday morning, but consumer electronics giant Sony was again weaker, down 10 yen to 5700 yen.

Telcos, automakers mixed

Telcos were mixed, with NTT and NTT DoCoMo off more than 1 percent, but KDDI was 1 percent higher at 302,000 yen.

Among automakers, the big three of Toyota, Nissan and Honda were slightly weaker, but Isuzu and Mitusbishi Motors made gains.

Elsewhere in the region, markets were weaker or flat, with Korea and New Zealand in the red and Australia's S&P/ASX200 just into the black, up 0.9 points to 3229.7.

In Seoul, the Kospi was down 4.01 points or 0.62 percent to 646.65.

Chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor continued to soar after announcing Monday it was talking to rival Micron Technology about a possible strategic alliance. It added 170 won or 6.9 percent to 2635 won after its sharp gains Monday.

New Zealand's Top 40 was off 18.04 points or 0.88 percent to 2023.12.

Poor performance on Wall Street

In Tokyo, the poor performance of banking stocks followed Wall Street's downturn Monday on worries about the Mideast conflict and the Enron collapse.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished Monday at 9763.96 for a loss of 87.6 points or 0.9 percent. The Nasdaq composite lost 25.68 points or 1.33 percent to 1904.90.

Another factor weighing on the market is the expectation of weak economic data later this week.

The government will release preliminary gross domestic product figures for the September quarter on Friday, with the figure expected to confirm Japan has entered its fourth recession in a decade.

Dentsu, the world's fourth-largest ad agency which made its debut Friday at 420,000 yen, was up 3.85 percent Tuesday to 540,000 yen.