Tokyo, Korea, HK all close higher


Koizumi won Bush's backing for his commitment to structural reform

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks closed mainly higher Monday as investors weighed the outcome of the Tokyo meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush.

Other key markets in Asia, including Korea and Hong Kong, also ended higher.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 average ended the day up 45.15 points or 0.45 percent at 10,093.25, while the broader capital-weighted TOPIX was essentially flat, slipping just 0.82 points to 981.68.

Koizumi said after his meeting with Bush he would not slacken his commitment to structural reform of the Japanese economy.

For his part, Bush said he had full confidence in Koizumi's desire and ability to implement what he called the Japanese leader's "bold agenda".

Investors are waiting to see what specific new steps might emerge in Japan's fight against deflation and in cleaning up banks' bad loans before the end of the financial year in six weeks' time on March 31.

Japanese banks mixed


Japanese banks were mixed Monday, with UFJ Holdings up 1.7 percent

Big banks were mixed, with UFJ Holdings up 1.72 percent to 296,000 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp moving ahead 1.27 percent to 479 yen.

Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, dropped 2.5 percent to 231,000 yen and the other member of the Big Four, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, lost13,000 yen or 1.6 percent to 807,000 yen.

Elsewhere in the region, markets in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand were also higher, but Australia and Singapore were in the red.

In Seoul, the Kospi put on 6.78 points or 0.87 percent to 785.63, while Taiwan's Taiex was up 42.53 points or 0.72 percent on its first day of trading after the Lunar New Year holidays.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index put on about 40 points to 11,002, and in New Zealand the NZSE Top 40 was up 3.14 points at 2071.84.

Australia eases

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200, which last week entered record territory above 3500, eased 11.1 points or 0.22 percent to 3412.8.

Australian banking leaders NAB, CBA and ANZ were weaker, but media group and market heavyweight News Corp regained a little of last week's lost ground to put on 22 cents or 1.72 percent to A$13.00.

Resources stock Rio Tinto, which hit a record high of A$41.51 last week, eased another 85 cents or 2 percent to close at A$39.80.

Some Japanese high-tech issues came under pressure after a two percent slide by the tech-heavy U.S. Nasdaq market on Friday.

Tokyo Electron, a major maker of chip-manufacturing equipment, fell 0.74 percent to 8040 yen after going as low as 7890 yen, and Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric also fell.

Sony Corp, Japan's leading consumer electronics maker, recovered to close 10 yen higher at 6040 yen after sliding as low as 5900 yen earlier in the day.

Telcos waning

Mobile phone leader NTT DoCoMo slipped 2.1 percent to 1.39 million yen, while parent NTT was down 1.25 percent to 394,000 yen. Japan Telecom slumped more than 5 percent to 372,000 yen.

Leading automaker Toyota was unchanged, but Nissan eased 1.1 percent and Honda was down 0.78 percent.

Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka indicated at the weekend the government would decide soon on whether to inject public funds into banks to help them deal with massive bad loans.

"It is likely that the results of special inspections of banks will be available by March 31," Kyodo news agency quoted Takenaka as telling reporters.

In Seoul, mobile leader SK Telecom was up 3.2 percent to 258,000 won and market heavyweight Samsung Electronics was slightly higher, up 1500 won or 0.44 percent at 343,000 won.

Hynix tumbles in Korea

But Hynix Semiconductor closed 5.2 percent down at 1910 won. At one point it slumped 14 percent to 1735 won after reports its potential U.S. suitor Micron Technology was seeking tax breaks to pursue the deal.

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index closed about 0.4 percent higher at 11,002.

Selected property groups, along with Li Ka-shing's twin flagships Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, were higher but most other blue chips gave ground.

Leading bank HSBC was down 0.8 percent to HK$88.50. China Mobile and China Unicom were both down about 1 percent.

In Singapore, the Straits Times index was down about 4 points to 1764 near the close. DBS Group eased 10 cents or 0.67 percent to S$14.80.