Asia Watch

By RAY HEATH
Updated:

 

There was little sign of a widely predicted surge on Asian markets today following the strong performance on Wall Street and the Nasdaq at the end of last week.

A swing back to cautious optimism on the outlook for semiconductors and other computer-related stocks generated some selective buying, but this failed to spur more widespread enthusiasm among regional investors.

Dealers in Hong Kong reported that investors were looking for some more solid long-term signals from Wall Street before accepting that last week's late surge across Asia was the start of a rebuilding of market values.

Trade in Tokyo was subdued by the lack of enthusiasm for the sale of the latest, and sixth, government tranche of stock in Nippon Telegraph & Telephone which ends today. Investors applied for only 1.5 to two times the US$12bn (£8.3bn) worth of stock on offer, compared with previous subscriptions of five or six times. and the lacklustre response sent NTT shares down almost 3% to a 19-month low.

With NTT sucking money out of the market, the Nikkei 225 Average closed down 100.77 points at 15,097.96, although the fall was cushioned by demand for fibre-optic cable makers on hopes for the speeding up of internet services.

In Hong Kong, attention was centred on the next act by Pacific Century Cyberworks, which called for a suspension of its shares.

The Hang Seng index failed to follow-through on Friday's 4% surge, and in early trades had lost more than 100 points, although it recovered to gain 44.30 15,088.83.

PCCW, the territory's largest telephone network, which has ambitious, and expensive, internet ambitions, asked for trading to be frozen ahead of an announcement of a share offer to existing shareholders.

Any attempt to recapitalise the group through a heavily discounted rights issue would be a further blow to the company's credibility, warned analysts. This year the group's shares have slumped from HK$28.50 to HK$6.50.

Mobile phones group Smartone gyrated on reports that British Telecom was preparing to unload its 20% stake in the group. The stock bounced from a loss of more than 5%, to a gain of 1.4%.

Reports that Asian semiconductor manufacturers would be unveiling encouraging earnings before the year-end drove demand for Taiwan Semi-conductor, the world's largest chipmaker, which jumped 7%.

Other leading chip-makers also bounced back from early morning profit-taking, and by the midday close the Taiwan Weighted index was up 1.45%, or 81.21 points, to 5680.95.

There was no respite from early profit-taking in Seoul. Concern that Korean banks are facing hefty capital write-offs sent the Kospi down almost 2%, or 10.52 points, to 535.45.

Singapore's Straits Times index eased back 1.87 points to 1921.80.

Malaysian shares reversed their week-long climb, settling back 0.15 points to 778.84, while the Jakarta Composite drifted up 0.26 points to 420.59. Thailand's markets are closed today.

Sydney's All Ordinaries moved up 29.4 points to 3217.2.

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