Asia Watch

By RAY HEATH
Updated:

 

Some isolated pockets of resistance against the relentless falls in Asian stock markets appeared today, but only Japan managed to hold on to some meagre gains.

Elsewhere Nasdaq's overnight 2.2% fall hammered Asian technology stocks for the second day. Taiwan took a heavy pounding, with stocks down 3.3%, while Hong Kong failed to hold early gains and the Hang Seng dropped more than 1%.

Japan stocks looked set for a fifth day of losses in early trading, as the Nikkei 225 Average added another 120 points to yesterday's 314-points plunge. Then bargain-hunting among the technology stocks pulled the market out of its dive, and it closed marginally ahead, 37.07 points at 15,550.64.

Buyers of Japan's computer component stocks took their lead from the US-based Applied Micro Circuits, which turned in a surprisingly buoyant second-quarter performance. Popular targets were the market leaders NEC and Fujitsu, both of which have fallen more than 13% over the past week. NEC recovered more than 4%, and Fujitsu added 3%, but no one was betting that this signalled the end of the semiconductors slump.

Old-economy stocks gave Hong Kong's market an early boost, and for a while it looked as if the Hang Seng index would bounce up from the 15,000 level.

The optimism didn't last, and former glamour stocks once again pulled the wider market lower. The index closed the morning session down 208.19 to 14,918.81.

Nasdaq was only part of the Hong Kong story. Its telecommunications companies have got problems of their own. Pacific Century Cyberworks, which runs the main telephone network as well as having massive investments in internet projects, dropped 30 cents to a 10-month low of HK$7.55 on reports that it would have to hand over control of a key joint venture in China to the Australian Telstra group.

China Mobile, the biggest mainland network operator, was down $1.25 to $52 on a growing conviction among analysts that it paid too much for its recent purchase of seven other Chinese mobile service providers.

There was no respite in the fall in Taiwan stock prices. After a 2.7% plunge yesterday, the Weighted index fell a further 3.9%, through 6000, with a 237.25-points slump to 5803.30.

The Taipei government has committed itself to holding the index at 6000, and today launched a further package of measures to try to stop the rot. As well as mobilising a national stabilisation fund, the government will allow Taiwan companies to buy back its shares, and is embarking on a witch-hunt to find rumour-mongers, who it believes are damaging sentiment.

South Korean stocks attempted an early rally, but after a see-saw session the Composite index slipped 3.80 to 553.38. In South-East Asia only Thailand and Indonesia progressed. Bangkok's SET rose 0.81 points to 251.41, and the Jakarta Composite gained 0.71 points to 413.04.

The Singapore Straits Times index followed Nasdaq and fell 10.44 points to 1836.12, and the Kuala Lumpur Composite slipped 1.36 points to 712.89.

Sydney's performance was held back by News Corp and technology stocks, which outweighed relative strength among old-economy counters and the All Ordinaries lost 28.7 points to 3184.4.

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