NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Major Asian stock indices were lower in early Friday trading after the U.S. Nasdaq reversed its five-day winning streak as Wall Street investors rushed to sell technology stocks.
Tokyo's Nikkei stock average took an opposite direction by midday, as the market shifted its focus to encouraging economic fundamentals after an opening slip.
Hong Kong stocks opened mostly in the red following a slide in U.S. stocks overnight as interest rate fears resurfaced.
 Taiwan stocks seesawed in early trading as investors turned cautious following news that rival China had scheduled live-fire exercise in the Taiwan Strait.
The benchmark Weighted index opened 0.34 percent lower, inched up, then fell again. Thirty minutes after trade began, the index was down 20.08 points, or 0.23 percent, at 8,751.69.
The South Korean market opened lower as brokerage issues lost ground on the back of Wall Street's slide overnight. The KOSPI index was down 1.73 percent at 768.71, off 13.53 points after the first five minutes, and the over-the-counter Kosdaq market fell 2.67 percent to 146.66, for a loss of 4.03 points.
Singapore stocks slipped as investors stayed on the sidelines to watch the Straits Times index drop 1.22 percent or 24.79 points to 2003.83.
Nikkei bounces back by midday
The benchmark Nikkei 225 average was up 75.77 points or 0.44 percent at 17,181.78 by midday, recovered from an early dip to 16,899.00.
"Tokyo fell initially in deference to the U.S. declines. But soon institutional investors stepped in to buy on dips, supporting the downside," said Shigeru Harada, deputy chief of the investment advisory office at Sakura Friend Securities.
 "That encouraged others to refocus on improving corporate performances," he said.
The capital-weighted TOPIX index of all first-section shares was down 4.22 points or 0.27 percent at 1,571.41.
High-tech stocks with strong earnings, such as Canon Inc. and Fujitsu Ltd, recovered from early morning losses and managed to finish the morning session on the plus side.
Canon, a leading maker of printers and cameras, was up 1.36 percent at 5,230 yen and Fujitsu rose 1.17 percent to 3,460 yen.
In the telecom sector, mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo was down 0.99 percent at 3.01 million yen, but off its morning low of 2.97 million yen.
Online investment information provider Morningstar Japan KK ended the morning at 10.92 million yen after initially trading at 10 million yen, up sharply from its initial public offer (IPO) price of seven million yen.
The initial price level was largely in line with investors' expectations, since Morningstar's status as a leading investment trust assessment agency and its affiliation with Internet conglomerate Softbank Corp. stoked predictions of a bullish debut.
Top financial diplomat Haruhiko Kuroda said on Friday Japan would act in the currency market when appropriate to prevent an excessive yen rise, after the currency shot higher in overnight trade.
The U.S. dollar lost value against the Japanese yen at the start of the Tokyo business day Friday.
The 9 a.m. local time quote on the Tokyo Foreign Exchange has the dollar at 104.67 yen, down 0.59 yen from the end of the previous business day in Tokyo.
Hong Kong stocks plunge at open
The Hang Seng index was down 1.30 percent, or 207.13 points, at 15,745.23 at 10:05 a.m. local time. But the index appeared to be finding initial support at 15,730.
"The market's not looking too good," said David Harman, institutional sales manager at Typhoon Eight Research Ltd. "It's following Wall Street down. If there's a recovery it probably won't be until the middle of next week."
The possibility of a quarter percentage point rise in interest rates next week when the U.S. Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday was weighing on U.S. investors' minds on Wednesday and the Hong Kong market today, analysts said.
Continued high oil prices also reignited U.S. inflation fears, they said. New listing China Unicom was under pressure in early trade. It was down 3.87 percent at HK$16.15, after hitting an early low of HK$15.90 at the opening.
"Unicom at HK$16 is probably offering reasonable value," Harman said. "Above that it was too expensive."
Rival mainland mobile phone operator China Telecom, soon to change its name to China Mobile (Hong Kong), was down 1.53 percent at HK$64.50, reflecting general market weakness, analysts said.
"People feel that the market at 16,000 is a bit too high so there's not much strong buying interest," said Dennis Leung, research manager at J&A Securities.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa is due to speak in Legco at 11.30 a.m. local time and some market watchers were hoping he might say something bullish on the property market that would lift property counters.
Investors were cautious, however, and the Hang Seng properties sub-index was down 1.03 percent at 14,778.48 in early trade.
News Corp. remains weak in Sydney
Australian stocks dipped at the open on Friday as media heavyweight News Corp continued its slide and bank stocks weakened.
The S&P-ASX 200 index fell 14.6 points or 0.4 percent to 3,159.0. The old All Ordinaries index slipped 14.4 points or 0.45 percent to 3,157.2.
Traders said while the market was still taking stock of Rio Tinto's cash offer for mining and forestry group North Ltd, the bid was lending support to other resource stocks.
"It's taking into consideration the Rio bid for North, and what benefits lie for other stocks in those related sectors, that's why we're seeing an improvement in BHP and other resource based stocks," Jamie Spiteri, dealer at Shaw Stockbroking said.
Rio Tinto said earlier it has launched a A$3.80 per share or A$2.8 billion takeover offer for local mining and forestry group North after securing 14.5 percent of its stock before the market opened.
North said in a statement it believed Rio's bid was inadequate.
 North leapt 34 percent to A$3.91 when trading in its shares kicked off at 11:00 a.m. local time, while Rio's shares sunk 2.05 percent to A$24.50.
"It's been a situation where North's been talked about for quite a while and it could be a catalyst for ongoing momentum in that area," Spiteri said.
Shares of BHP shot 1.69 percent higher to A$19.50 in early trade, while WMC jumped 3.69 percent to A$7.31.
"That's the main news and is underpinning some of the other resource stocks, it probably starts to reprice what some of these are worth," Grant Williams, at Reynolds Stockbroking said.
"Things like Pasminco, MIM, and Normandy have all been languishing for months and months, it doesn't immediately make them worth more but it might start to get the market a little bit more positive about them," Williams said.
News Corp. shares continued their downward slide, falling 2.4 percent to A$23.00 after their ADRs fell 1.67 percent to US$55 as investors digest the skimpy details revealed to date on its upcoming Sky Global Inc IPO.
Analysts and investors say that while the market has realized the spin off was a good move for News Corp., the IPO filing did not contain any information that had not already been factored into its share price.
Banking stocks fell across the board as Wall Street's weakness continued to dog the local market and ongoing interest rate jitters made themselves felt. Commonwealth Bank fell 0.64 percent to A$26.41, while National Australia Bank was 0.77 percent lower at A$25.56, and Westpac was down 1.08 percent at A$11.87.
Turnover on the wider market was A$618.9 million. Of the 805 stocks traded, 238 climbed, while 309 fell with 268 remaining steady. 
- compiled by staff writer Joseph Lee
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