LONDON (CNNfn) - Asian stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as most key indexes were unmoved by the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to hold off on another interest rate hike, although high-tech shares suffered a sell-off in South Korea.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average of 225 stocks slipped 18.09 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 16,436.65, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ended down 240.88 points, or 1.4 percent, at 17,427.4, with telecom stocks leading the market lower.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 18.82 points, or 2.5 percent, to 719.79, led by semiconductor and telecommunication stocks. The tech-heavy Kosdaq slumped 3.3 percent. Chipmaker Samsung Electronics fell 3.1 percent and SK Telecom, the nation's biggest telephone company, dropped 2.1 percent.
Singapore's Straits Times index fell 25.92 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,184.59, with Chartered Semiconductor down more than 2 percent and Singapore Telecom dropping 1. 8 percent.
Taiwan's equity markets were closed on Wednesday because of Typhoon Bilis.
In the currency market, the yen strengthened to ¥107.30 against the U.S. dollar, from ¥108.22 in late New York trading Tuesday.
Confession slams Mitsubishi Motors
In Tokyo, automaker Mitsubishi Motors dropped 7.2 percent, the day after the company acknowledged it hid customer complaints from Japanese authorities for more than 20 years, much longer than previously thought.
Tire maker Bridgestone fell 3.2 percent, almost wiping out the previous day's gain, after its U.S. unit Firestone said it would start importing tires from Japan to replace lost production at a plant in Illinois that was forced to recall tires suspected of being faulty. The company has been urged to speed up the pace of its recall of 6.5 million tires.
Among rate-sensitive banking shares, Industrial Bank of Japan rose 6.3 percent, Fuji Bank added 5.5 percent, and Sanwa Bank climbed more than 5 percent.
Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest company by value, rose 2.3 percent.
Shinko Electric Industries jumped 13.6 percent, extending the previous day's 10 percent rise, after the manufacturer of semiconductor packages on Tuesday raised its group net profit forecast for the year ending March 2000 to ¥6.5 billion ($60.6 million) from ¥3 billion.
Toshiba rose 0.4 percent after surging 7.16 percent on Tuesday on a well received earnings report. The company said Wednesday it might raise its spending on chip-making equipment to a record ¥170 billion from an original target of ¥130 billion this business year.
Among chipmakers, Mitsubishi Electric rose 5.5 percent, Fujitsu climbed 1 percent, while NEC, Japan's No. 1 in semiconductors, added 0.8 percent.
Hong Kong dips as telecoms weaken
In Hong Kong, China Mobile fell 3.2 percent, leading declines among telecom stocks as investors continued to pull funds out of the sector, reacting to the high prices paid in the German auction of licenses to operate third-generation mobile-phone services. Pacific Century CyberWorks slipped 2.9 percent and CCT Telecom lost 1.6 percent.
Hutchison Whampoa, which is bidding for a mobile license in Italy, fell 1.3 percent. Italian licenses are expected to cost  5 billion each.
Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose 9.8 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,322.7, led by miners such as Rio Tinto, up 3.6 percent amid rising base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange. Media heavyweight News Corp. rose more than 2.9 percent.
In other markets, Thailand's composite SET index lost 2.1 percent and Manila's PHS Composite slipped 0.4 percent, while Jakarta's JSX edged up 0.7 percent. 
--from staff and wire reports
|
