NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Asian stocks remained mostly in the plus column in early Thursday trading as bullish sentiment in tech sectors lingered.
Tokyo shares inched higher as overseas investors chased info-tech stocks ahead of mid-year book closings.
Hong Kong stocks however took an opposite direction in early trading as investors seen disappointed by the listing of mainland mobile phone operator China Unicom.
 Singapore shares also drifted lower after an early spurt in the finance and property sectors began to reverse. The benchmark Straits Times index was down 0.20 percent, or 4.04 points, to 2,025.30.
Taiwan stocks opened higher on Thursday following six straight sessions of falls, but brokers said investors still remained cautious. Twenty-two minutes into the trading, the Weighted index was up 14.47 points, or 0.17 percent, at 8,652.07.
South Korean stocks opened higher as LG Investment and Securities and other financials attracted bargain hunters. The main KOSPI index was up 1.40 percent at 792.80, up 10.93 points, and the tech-rich Kosdaq over-the-counter market extended its gains, up 2.01 percent at 155.07, for a rise of 3.06 points.
Nikkei hits 1-month intraday high
The benchmark Nikkei 225 average was up 135.86 points or 0.79 percent at 17,345.94 by midday. During the morning the benchmark hit its highest intraday level in more than a month at 17,364.26.
"Investors who were fearful of a further downturn in Tokyo stocks a while ago are now jumping onto the buying bandwagon," said Akihiko Sakakibara, stock investment manager at Sumitomo Marine Asset Management.
The Nikkei's latest winning streak, which boosted it by nearly 900 points over the first three days of this week, reassured investors that there are few major downside risks for Tokyo stocks at the moment.
The capital-weighted TOPIX index of all first-section shares gained 14.72 points or 0.93 percent to 1,598.67.
Shares in the high-tech and telecom sectors were mostly firmer, heartened by yet another overnight gain on Nasdaq, although the morning gain was somewhat limited as the rapid advances of the past few sessions in Tokyo made some investors cautious and inclined to stay on the sidelines.
 Major mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo rose 1.95 percent to 3.14 million yen, while its parent Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. was up a modest 0.7 percent at 1.43 million yen.
High-tech weathervane Sony Corp. gained 2.4 percent to end the morning at 10,250 yen and Fujitsu Ltd inched up 0.57 percent to 3,510 yen.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar dipped on Monday against the Japanese yen as currency traders stayed on the sideline waiting for new directions.
The dollar was quoted at 105.43 yen in early Tokyo trading against the final closing quote of 105.58 yen in late New York trading.
China Unicom disappoints investors
The Hang Seng index was down 0.17 percent, or 28.04 points, at 16,210.10 at 10:09 a.m. local time.
China Unicom rose to HK$17.00 in early trading, from an issue price of HK$15.58 per share for institutional investors, but failed to match its opening surge on its debut in New York overnight and had fallen back to HK$16.80 after 15 minutes' trade.
"I'm disappointed, I wanted Unicom to rise to HK$19 and than sell into China Telecom," said David Harman, institutional sales manager at Typhoon Eight Research Ltd. "I think investors feel it's a bit expensive at HK$15.58 but it may settle and firm later in the day."
China Telecom, soon to change its name to China Mobile (Hong Kong), was down 1.12 percent at HK$66.50 in early trade, after bouncing to HK$67.50 at the opening.
"China Telecom is weaker because attention is on Unicom," said Dennis Leung, research manager at J&A Securities.  "Overall the market is still consolidating because there is still no clear direction."
The Hang Seng properties sub-index was down 1.26 percent at 14,965.58.
However, Swire Pacific was up 0.67 percent at HK$45. The stock has been sold heavily in recent days on expectations of a re-rating. On Thursday credit agency Standard & Poor's put the stock on credit-watch with negative implications.
"Swire's business is quite steady, the rating is just related to its property rental business but its earnings are quite steady so it's not too bad," Leung said.
Market turnover totaled a hefty HK$3.5 billion after just thirty minutes' trade with China Unicom accounting for HK$1.566 billion of that. Declines outpacing advances by 243 to 125.
News Corp. stock slips in Australia
Australian shares ignored a firmer Wall Street session and slipped lower at the open, with a fall in media heavyweight News Corp. and weaker bank stocks putting pressure on the local market.
"Despite the stronger overseas market last night our market seems to have opened weaker...I think our market is really being dictated to by the ebbs and flows of the News Corp. share price," Tony Russell, dealer at Morgan Stockbroking said.
The S&P-ASX 200 index fell 9.1 points or 0.29 percent to 3169.3. The old All Ordinaries index was 8.9 points or 0.28 percent lower at 3,167.4.
News Corp. retraced most of its previous session's 3.1 percent gain, and was 50 cents or 2.1 percent lower at A$23.35, as investors digested the details of its plans to spin off its satellite assets in a new company Sky Global Networks Inc.
"I think it's a bit of profit taking coming in from the heady rise of last little while. Investors are also sidelined with the float of their Sky business, it's an enormous thing to analyze," Russell said.
Losses incurred by News Corp.'s Star TV unit which were detailed in its SEC filing were already known by the market, and investors were now waiting for the finer IPO details to be revealed, Lindsay Gibson, investment manager at Credit Suisse Asset Management said.
"Everyone's very interested in what partnerships are going to be forged through this relationship and that's not evident at the moment," Gibson said.
Resource giant BHP, which earlier announced it would proceed with the 300 million barrel Rhourde Oulad Djemma oil field development in Algeria, gained 1.23 percent in early trade to A$18.95.
Dual listed Rio Tinto, once again closely tracking its London shares, which rallied overnight, gained 1.11 percent to A$24.87.
Banking stocks, which make up around 18 percent of the S&P-ASX 200, were lower across the board, with Commonwealth Bank down 14 cents at A$26.80 and National Australia Bank 14 cents lower at A$25.93.
Elsewhere, chilly investor attitudes towards tech stocks showed signs of thawing, with some of larger companies rallying strongly. Smartcard group ERG, which has just signed a deal with the UK Post Office, jumped 13 percent to A$11.80, while software group MYOB gained 6.8 percent to A$5.34 and former market darling Solution 6 climbed 10 percent to A$2.92.
Other gainers included miner Kingsgate Consolidated NL, whose shares gained 38 percent to 80 cents in early trade after the firm announced it has been granted four leases covering the proposed low cost Chatree Gold Mine in Thailand for 20 years.
Market watchers said the overall market would continue to drift for the time being as investors unwound positions ahead of the June 30 financial year-end.
"A lot of the economic data is (already) out, so the market is virtually becalmed on the lack of news," Gibson said.
Turnover on the wider market was A$185 million. Of the 909 stocks traded, 314 were up, while 279 slipped, with 279 remaining steady. 
- compiled by staff writer Joseph Lee
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