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Asian stocks end in the red
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June 22, 2000: 6:30 a.m. ET
Tokyo's 3-day rally peters out as election looms; Taipei ends losing streak
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Asia's leading markets closed lower Thursday, as Tokyo's three-day rally petered out amid losses for industrial stocks and sings of nervousness about the coming weekend's parliamentary elections.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 104.07 points, or 0.6 percent, after posting gains of 1 percent or more for each of the previous three days.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed down 285.78 points, or 1.4 percent, at 15,952.36, while the Singapore Straits Times index was little changed at 2,028.62.
Elsewhere among Asia's leading markets, the Taiwan Weighted index in Taipei closed up 1.6 percent, ending a six-day string of losses, while South Korea's Kospi index rose 0.5 percent.
In the U.S. Wednesday, the Nasdaq composite climbed 50.65 points, or 1.3 percent, to 4,064.01, its fifth straight gain. The Dow Jones industrial average added 62.58 points to 10,497.74.
In the currency market, the dollar traded at ¥105.22, up slightly from ¥105.43 in late New York trading on Wednesday. The euro fell slightly to 94.21 U.S. cents from 94.55 cents late Wednesday.
Speaking on CNNfn Thursday, Philip Manduca, head of international investments at Tilney Fund Management, said he didn't believe this weekend's parliamentary elections in Japan would have much effect on the Japanese currency. "I think the yen will remain strong in the short term, weak in the long term," he said.
Japan's "old economy" drags
In the Japanese telecom sector, Mobile telephone service operator NTT DoCoMo shed 1.3 percent, while parent NTT rose 1.4 percent. Overseas telecom carrier KDD gained 4.1 percent.
Dowa Mining fell 5.7 percent and Sumitomo Metals Mining shed 2.5 percent as weakness among "old-economy" mining and manufacturing companies dragged on the Nikkei index. Can manufacturer Toyo Seikan Kaisha dropped 3.3 percent.
Furukawa Electric, Japan's leading maker of electric wires and cables, dropped 3.2 percent even after it said Wednesday it would pocket a one-time profit of about ¥100 billion ($947 million) from the sale of shares in JDS Uniphase (JDSU: Research, Estimates).
Nippon Cable System rose by its daily limit of ¥200, or 19 percent, to ¥1,251 after Nomura Securities raised its investment rating on the maker of control cables for automobiles.
In the drug sector, Daiichi Pharmaceutical climbed 7.3 percent after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Securities maintained an "outperform" rating on the drug maker's shares amid optimism about prospects for future products, especially cancer treatments.
Among high-tech manufacturers, Hitachi gained 1.9 percent and consumer-electronics market leader Sony added 1.4 percent after online broker Monex, which is about 37-percent owned by Sony, said on Thursday it was planning a public offering of its shares soon.
In Hong Kong, the slump on the Hang Seng came despite a 10-percent gain for China Unicom in its trading debut. The initial public offering for China's No. 2 mobile-telephone operator marked Asia's largest-ever IPO outside Japan.
Sun Hung Kai Properties fell 1.3 percent while banking giant HSBC dropped 1.9 percent. Property and bank stocks fell after comments by some U.S. central bankers suggested the Federal Reserve might boost interest rates by a quarter percentage point when it meets next Tuesday. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Cathay upbeat on profit
Cathay Pacific rose 3.6 percent, bucking the market slide, after the airline said analysts' forecasts for a profit of HK$3.2 billion ($410 million) this year were too conservative amid rising cargo and passenger volumes.
Apt Satellite rose 4.6 percent after Singapore Telecommunications said its joint venture with APT won a telecom license in Hong Kong.
In Singapore, shares of SingTel rose 1.3 percent, and newspaper publisher Singapore Press Holdings rose 1.5 percent, its fourth consecutive gain.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Rim, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.2 percent, the JSX index in Jakarta rose 1.5 percent, and Bangkok's SET index added 0.9 percent. In Manila, the PHS composite index fell 0.6 percent, and the KLSE index in Kuala Lumpur dropped 0.9 percent. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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