Asian stock gains build into afternoon trade

By staff and wire reports

HONG KONG, China -- Asia stocks continued to surge by midday Thursday, building on Wednesday's impressive run. But they were starting to flag going into afternoon trade.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei index ended the morning session up 2.49 percent at 10,980.05. The broader Topix index was up 1.57 percent at 1,063.77.

But both indexes had lost about half a percent of their gains as they headed into afternoon trade.

Techs again drove the rise, as they had on Wednesday. Investors are betting on the likelihood that industries like chipmaking have bottomed out and are ready to rally.

Toshiba up 4.4 percent

That thinking boosted Toshiba Corp.'s stock on Thursday morning. Japan's largest chipmaker rose 4.4 percent to 545 yen at noon.

Chip-equipment maker Tokyo Electron surged 10.68 percent to 7,670 yen.

Japan reports its Gross Domestic Product on Friday and is almost sure to make official its fourth recession in a decade. But its stock market has rallied recently, despite rising unemployment and bankruptcies.

Mizuho Holdings, the world's largest bank by assets, ended the morning session up 2.4 percent at 295,000 yen. Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Japan's banking No. 2, rose 9.0 percent to 605 yen.

The International Monetary Fund is reputedly beginning an assessment of Japan's banking system on Thursday, leading to speculation that Japan's banks might be forced to take even stauncher action to clean up their bad loans.

South Korea stocks up 50% from low

In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 2.04 percent at 702.34 at noon. Seoul stocks have rallied more than 50 percent from their low of 463.54 in September.

Samsung Electronics notched another gain, up 8.9 percent at 288,000 won. Unusually, on Wednesday it rose the daily 15 percent limit for a one-day rise in Korea.

It is South Korea's largest stock, and drives the Kospi. The gains weren't across the board.

The country's biggest bank, Kookmin Bank, was down 3 percent to 48,250 won. SK Telecom dropped 0.9 percent to 281,500 won.

Korean Air Lines continued to rise, up 9 percent to 8,450 won. It has gained on optimism about sales connected to next year's World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Korea and Japan.

Singapore continues its strength

Taiwan's Taiex was up 4.7 percent at 5,153.93 shortly before noon. It closed at a five-month high on Wednesday.

Electronics stocks were up strongly, building on a 4.3 percent leap on the U.S. Nasdaq Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average ran up 2.2 percent, to close above 10,000 at 10,114.29.

Singapore shares were up 2.6 percent, with the Straits Times at 1,635.20 shortly before noon local time.

Electronics stocks have also led the running but the buying has been broad-based, with hopes the island state's recessionary economy is rebounding.

Bank stocks were also running up on that prospect.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index went into the lunch break up 0.36 percent at 11,719.94.

Australian and New Zealand stocks were also up in afternoon trade. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.13 percent at 3,352.0 in midafternoon trade.

But its early strength was giving ground, and traders said the gains weren't as strong as might be expected.

News Corp. and Telstra, the two largest listings in Australia, were both well up.

New Zealand's benchmark NZSE-40 Capital index was up 1.3 percent at 2,075.47. The gains were broad-based.

Reuters contributed to this report.