Asia heads higher on more U.S. gains


Toshiba, Hitachi, Canon and Sony are all up in Tokyo trade

Staff and wires

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian stocks are slightly higher heading into Friday afternoon trade, with South Korea doing best of the major markets.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 average is up just 3.7 points or 0.04 percent to 9799.27 after going as high as 9883.65 in morning trade. The broader capital-weighted Topix is down 0.06 percent to 961.68.

In Seoul, the Kospi is up 1.1 percent to 719.0. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are also slighter higher. New Zealand is just into the red.

The moves in Asia follow a second day of gains on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average ended 0.86 percent higher Thursday at 8818.14. The Nasdaq put on 10.71 points or 0.8 percent to 1345.01.

Trade is thin in Tokyo, with August traditionally a slow time because of the holiday season.

Sony, Canon higher


Taiwan techs are mainly higher

The U.S. dollar is trading a little stronger at 117.62 yen in Asia Friday. The value of the currency has an impact on big Japanese exporters such as consumer electronics leader Sony and automakers Honda and Toyota, which make heavy sales in the United States.

Sony is up 0.79 percent at 5110 yen, Canon is 2.2 percent higher at 4190 yen and Hitachi is up 1.36 percent at 672 yen. Toshiba put on 1 percent to 414 yen.

Mobile telephone leader NTT DoCoMo is down 2.25 percent to 261,000 yen by midday. Parent NTT is off about 1 percent, and rival KDDI is up 0.3 percent to 332,000 yen.

The big banks are flat or slightly weaker. SMBC is showing the biggest fall, down 0.65 percent to 608 yen.

Softbank, a 43 percent investor in the troubled Nasdaq Japan Market venture, is up 0.8 percent to 1255 yen. There is a widespread expectation that the joint venture will announce it is ceasing operations later Friday.

Hyundai Motor up strongly


The market in Australia is up about half a percent

In Seoul, leading automaker Hyundai Motor is making strong gains, up 4.65 percent to 33,750 won. Earlier this week it reported a 46 percent lift in first-half net profit.

Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics is up 1.7 percent to 327,500 won. Investor favorite SK Telecom is up just over 1 percent to 233,500.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 is up 0.43 percent to 3141.5 in early afternoon trade.

News Corp., which reported a record Australian corporate loss of A$12 billion on Wednesday night, continues to make gains. It is up 3.16 percent to A$10.44.

Leading telco Telstra is up 0.2 percent to A$4.91 after the federal government announced an inquiry into regional telephone services. This is seen as a prelude to the full selloff of Telstra, possibly as early as 2003.

Resources leader Rio Tinto is up 1.44 percent to A$32.44. Big banks NAB, CBA and ANZ are all slightly weaker.

China Mobile gains

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is about half a percent higher at 10,273 near midday.

Mobile phone leader China Unicom is up about 1 percent to HK$5.55. Leading computer maker Legend Group is up 2.6 percent.

Singapore's big banks are mainly unchanged. The Straits Times index is up about 0.2 percent.

In Taiwan, technology stocks are mainly higher, following the gains on Nasdaq in the U.S. Taipei's biggest stock, chip foundry TSMC, is up about 1 percent to T$53.50. Its smaller rival UMC is up a third of a percent to T$30.50.

Far East Textile is among the market's biggest gainers, up almost 7 percent to T$12.40.