Asia Watch

By RAY HEATH
Updated:

 

Asian investors who had been looking for a reason to pick up oversold technology stocks found it today in Nasdaq's overnight 7.7% gain. The third largest one-day jump in the history of the US market had Asian retail buyers and foreign institutions scrabbling for stocks that had been battered by the slumping US markets.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan had their best day for more than a month as technology stocks rebounded, while blue chips boosted Hong Kong's Hang Seng index by more than 4%.

The Nikkei 225 jumped more than 3%, Taipei's Weighted index pulled back from a 4 1/2-year low with a 6% gain, and in Seoul the return of foreign buyers helped the Kospi index to a near 7% rebound in early trading.

The better- than-expected results from Microsoft and Sun Microsystems has reignited enthusiasm for Asia's heavyweight computer-related stocks, which had pulled markets down following a stream of earnings warnings from US technology companies and analysts.

Japan's Fujitsu was up almost 8%, Korea's Samsung chip group soared 15% and Taiwan Semiconductor gained almost 7%.

Following a 17% leap in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index, the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Semiconductors index, which is made up of the region's leading semiconductor groups, surged 7.3% after falling more than 20% in the previous seven days.

Japan's Fujitsu was up almost 8%, while the unexpectedly strong 42% gain in earnings by Nokia sent mobile phone giant NTT Docomo up 5.32% as the Nikkei 225 broke back through 15,000 with a 387.65 leap to 15,198.73.

Korea's Samsung chip group soared 15%, taking the Kospi up 32.2 points to 547.24. As Taiwan Semiconductor gained almost 7%, the Weighted index jumped 323.5 to 5404.78.

In Hong Kong, Pacific Century Cyberworks pulled out of its vertical dive as even the company's biggest critics declared the fall had gone far enough to uncover some value in the company. The shares jumped more than 7% to HK6.55 in morning trading, and contributed a large slice of the Hang Seng index's 595.16 rise to 15,017.68. New entrant Sinopec, China's largest energy group which fell below its issue price yesterday, moved back into positive territory with a 3.9% jump to $1.60.

Blue-chips that led the Hong Kong market up included China Mobile, up HK$3.05 to HK$52.75, HSBC Holdings, up HK$2.50 to to HK$107.50, and conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, up HK$4 to HK$97. Technology stocks provided excitement in South-East Asia. Singapore's Straits Times index rose 55.57 points to 1939.62 and Thailand's SET index rose 5.48 points to 281.67.

In more subdued Malaysian and Indonesia markets, the Kuala Lumpur Composite edged up 0.88 to 775.08, and the Jakarta Composite added 3.4 points to 426.14.

Sydney stock buyers shook off Rupert Murdoch's warning that his US offshoot Fox would pull down News Corporation profits, and the stock jumped 5% on the overnight surge in US technology counters. Although old-economy bank and retail shares put the brakes on the market, the All Ordinaries index rose by 39 points to 3231.7.

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