Nikkei cracks 12,000 but rest of Asia soft


Banking leader Mizuho Holdings is up almost 5 percent in Tokyo trade Monday

TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks are mainly lower heading into afternoon trade Monday, but Tokyo is continuing to push ahead, with a key index breaking through the 12,000 mark.

The Nikkei 225 index finished the morning at 12,052.87, a gain of 76.59 points or 0.64 percent. Earlier it touched 12,081, its highest level since August 8, 2001.

The broader capital-weighted TOPIX index is up 2.57 points or 0.23 percent to 1,142.00.

After unveiling massive losses last Friday, Japan's big banks are mixed, with Mizuho Holdings and MTFG higher and UFJ Holdings and SMBC down.

South Korea's Kospi is also up a little, putting on 2 points or 0.23 percent to 856.57. But most other markets are flat or slightly easier.

Australia, H.K. down

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 is off 3.3 points or 0.1 percent to 3383.8. Gold stock AurionGold surged more than 30 percent after Canada's Placer Dome launched a $1.1 billion takeover bid.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is off about 62 points or 0.54 percent to 11,564.27.

After moving in and out of the red, Taiwan's Taiex is down about 8 points or 0.14 percent to 5698.

After Saturday's disastrous crash which cost 225 lives, Taiwan's flag carrier China Airlines is down 6.75 percent to T$15.20.

In Tokyo, the big banks are forecasting profits for the year to next March as they start to lighten their bad debt loads.

"After forecasts of a return to profit at Friday's earnings announcements, investors think a cyclical economic recovery will ease the banks' bad-loan woes," Kazunori Jinnai, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC, told Reuters news agency.

Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, is up almost 5 percent to 316,000 yen.

Tech weakness

Among tech-related issues, telco stocks NTT, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Japan Telecom are all lower. Consumer electronics leader Sony Corp is down 0.4 percent to 7420 yen, but most computer and chipmakers are higher.

Technology is still a worry for the global market, however. In the U.S. on Friday, Goldman Sachs downgraded the semiconductor chip equipment sector, citing uncertainty about end-demand for chip equipment in the second half of the year.

That helped send Tokyo Electron down 2 percent to 8800 yen in Monday morning's session, while Advantest, Japan's top maker of chip-testing devices, is down 0.46 percent at 8730 yen.

On Friday, the U.S. market eased, with the Down Jones industrial average off more than 1 percent to 10,104.26 and the Nasdaq composite index down 2.13 percent to 1661.49. Wall Street will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.

In Seoul, Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom are higher, but fixed-line telco KT Corp is down slightly.

In Hong Kong, conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is up 0.37 percent to HK$68 after it and Singapore partner STT ended talks with creditors of bankrupt data carrier Global Crossing about bidding for the company.

In Sydney, market heavyweight News Corp is marginally higher at A$13.45 and telco leader Telstra is up 0.4 percent to A$4.80 on renewed optimism about the timetable for the government to sell off the remaining 50 percent of the carrier.