Tokyo, Asia continue to make gains


Investors are becoming more optimistic about prospects for Japan after last week's sharp falls

Staff and wires

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian stocks are drawing support from Wall Street's advances, with Tokyo up better than 1 percent as the market heads into Tuesday afternoon.

The big Japanese banks, which took a hammering last week as the Nikkei slipped to a fresh 19-year low, are making good gains.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average has finished the Tuesday morning session up 110.98 points or 1.19 percent at 9417.24. The broader, capital-weighted Topix index is 1.38 percent higher at 920.35.

Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan's Taiex is doing best, up about 2.5 percent to 4646.19, followed by South Korea's Kospi, up 1.84 percent at 710.73.

Markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand are also higher, but Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 is down 0.15 percent after a new commodity forecast slashed the outlook for Australia's 2002-03 grain production. (Full story)

Anniversary of attacks


Consumer electronics leader Sony is among the gainers Tuesday

Caution ahead of Wednesday's anniversary of the attacks on the U.S., together with fears of an economic slowdown there, weighed on shares of Japanese exporters last week.

But healthy gains on Wall Street in the past two sessions are being seen by analysts as a sign that investors there are looking past jitters over the anniversary and fears of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average put on 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite added 0.72 percent. (Full story)

In Tokyo, Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest banking group by assets, is up 2.95 percent to 244,000 yen Tuesday, adding to a 4.41 percent rise the previous day.

UFJ Holdings is about 2 percent higher to 258,000 yen and MTFG is up 1.4 percent to 785,000 yen.

Japan's top automaker, Toyota Motor is 1.54 percent higher at 2970 yen, Nissan is up 3.27 percent to 884 yen and Honda is 0.83 percent firmer at 4860 yen.

Consumer electronics leader Sony Corp is another strong gainer, putting on 3.61 percent to 5160 yen. Canon is up 2.5 percent to 4000 yen and Hitachi has jumped more than 5 percent to 641 yen.

Mobile phone leader NTT DoCoMo is 1.3 percent higher at 236,000 yen. Parent NTT is up 3.63 percent to 457,000 yen. KDDI Corp is 2.6 percent firmer at 357,000 yen.

South Korea firmer


Australia is one of the few regional markets in the red

In Seoul, the market is broadly firmer, with only Hynix Semiconductor in the red among prominent stocks.

Telco favorite SK Telecom is 2.84 percent higher at 235,000 won and market heavyweight Samsung Electronics is up 1.24 percent to 327,500 won.

In Australia, big-cap stocks News Corp, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are all slightly higher, but not enough to keep the main index out of the red.

Telco giant Telstra is down, along with big banks ANZ and CBA and retailer Coles Myer.

Coles, which rose 4 percent Monday after the shock early retirement of chairman Stan Wallis, is down 1.33 percent to A$5.94.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up about three quarters of a percent to 9797.38, heading towards midday.

Banking leader HSBC and mobile twins China Mobile and China Unicom are all higher, as is conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

Taiwan's volatile Taiex has jumped 2.6 percent to 4650.37, with market heavyweight TSMC matching that gain at T$49.80. Rival chip foundry UMC is also up 2.6 percent to T$27.70.

Quanta Computer is one of the biggest gainers, up 4.62 percent to T$68.00.

Singapore is trending higher, with big banks DBS and UOB and other bluechips up. The Straits Times index is about 0.8 percent higher at 1435.07 heading towards midday.