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Asian stocks surge higher again
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian markets are enjoying another day of gains heading into Friday afternoon, led by a broad-based rally in Tokyo. The big Japanese banks are continuing their upward surge, pushing the Nikkei 225 average higher by 1.89 percent to 9496.63. Mizuho Holdings is up almost 8 percent. The broader capital-weighted Topix index is 2.12 percent higher to 933.35. Asia's stock market gains follow a jump of almost 2 percent by the Dow Jones industrial average on Wall Street Thursday. The Dow finished at 7997.12, up 1.98 percent. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite eased just a fraction, dipping 0.06 percent to 1221.61. (Full story) Among other major markets in Asia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia are all showing gains, but they relatively muted compared to Tokyo. South Korea's Kospi is up 0.37 percent to 664.99, Australia's S&P/ASX200 is showing a gain of half a percent to 3004.9 and Taiwan's Taiex is 0.78 percent higher at 4255. Singapore's Straits Times index is almost 1 percent stronger in late morning trade at 1369. New Zealand down
New Zealand's Top 40 is down about 0.7 percent as market heavyweight Telecom New Zealand eased. U.S. telco Verizon said late Thursday it was selling most of its 21.5 percent cornerstone stake in the N.Z. carrier. (Full story) The strong gains by Tokyo's big banks comes amid hopes that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may deal with the nation's bad-loan problem sooner than previously thought. Analysts said the market was cheered by a report that suggested the Japanese government shares with the Bank of Japan a sense of urgency about tackling banks' bad loans. The BOJ said last week it would take the unprecedented step of buying shares directly from banks to shore up the financial system. Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest banking group by assets, is up 7.81 percent at 290,000 yen. UFJ Holdings is up by the same amount to 316,000 yen. The other two members of the big four, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, are both higher by about 5.5 percent. Jobless rate steadyNew data released Friday shows Japan's jobless rate in August remained steady at 5.4 percent. (Full story) Attention is focused on Monday's Cabinet reshuffle when there is an expectation Koizumi will replace Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa with someone more aggressive in cleaning up the bad loans afflicting Japanese banks. Big telcos NTT DoCoMo and KDDI are both up more than 3 percent, consumer electronics leader Sony is 2.5 percent higher at 5300 yen and big computer and chipmaker Toshiba is more than 5 percent stronger at 384 yen. Mitsubishi Electric, the focus of a chipmaking reshuffle this week, is up 4.4 percent to 404 yen and Hitachi is 3.1 percent higher at 632 yen. In Seoul, investor favorite SK Telecom is 2.4 percent higher at 233,500 won, but the market's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics, is almost 1 percent weaker to 311,000 won. Steelmaker Posco continues to gain after a bad run, up another 2.4 percent to 106,500 won. It dipped below 100,000 won on Wednesday, its lowest price since November last year. News Corp gains
In Australia, media giant News Corp is 1.32 percent higher to A$9.21 after it said Thursday there was still no deal with Vivendi on buying the Telepiu pay TV operation in Italy. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are both 2 percent higher, but the big four banks are down. Financial services group AMP continues its slow climb back, up 1.88 percent to A$12.46. Hong Kong bluechips are broadly higher. Hutchison Whampoa is up 1.7 percent to HK$48.10. Singapore's banks are firmer. UOB is up 2.5 percent to S$12.00. In Taiwan, chip foundries TSMC and UMC are steady, but industrials such as Formosa Plastic and Nan Ya Plastic are showing gains of about 2 percent. Most techs are up about 1 percent.
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