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Nikkei rises, Asia mixed
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September 13, 2000: 6:48 a.m. ET
Tokyo gets lift from tech, telecom, chemical firms; News Corp. spurs Sydney
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Asia's leading markets closed higher Wednesday, as recently battered high-tech stocks returned to favor while a gain for media company News Corp. boosted the Sydney's main index, although other leading markets in the region drifted lower.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 average closed up 150.29 points, or 0.9 percent, at 16,190.52, bouncing back slightly after falling to a three-week low Tuesday. The index has risen in only two of the last 12 trading sessions, and is now down more than 14 percent in 2000.
In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.3 percent to reach 3,334.1, with  News Corp. climbing 4.5 percent. Lindsay Gibson, an investment manager at Credit Suisse Asset Management, said the shares were in demand because FTSE indexes had increased the stock's weighting.
Singapore's Straits Times index closed down 0.2 percent at 2,082.09, and in Taipei, the Taiwan Weighted index dropped 0.8 percent. Markets in
Hong Kong and South Korea were closed for holidays.
In the currency market, the dollar was traded at ¥106.92, little changed from ¥106.90 late Tuesday in the U.S.
Tokyo techs get back in stride
On the Tokyo exchange, semiconductor and high-tech shares such as Toshiba drew bargain hunters despite another weak showing by their U.S. counterparts the previous day. Toshiba rose 3.8 percent, and electronics company Hitachi rose 4.7 percent.
Consumer electronics maker Sharp climbed 1 percent after raising its profit forecast for the year ending March 2001 to ¥105 billion ($982 million), from a previous estimate of ¥93 billion. Sales are getting a boost from robust demand for liquid crystal displays, the company said late Tuesday. The stock had risen 2.3 percent Tuesday as a newspaper predicted Sharp would raise its earnings estimate.
In the telecom sector, mobile-phone heavyweight NTT DoCoMo added 2.5 percent and parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone rose 2.4 percent.
Advantest, a maker of semiconductor testing devices, nosed up 0.5 percent, ending a six-day losing streak during which it fell 11.6 percent.
Chemicals up on earnings optimism
Hitachi Chemical rose 7.3 percent after the saying Tuesday it expects net profit of ¥11 billion ($103 million) in the year through next March, raising its estimate from a previous ¥6.2 billion. And Mitsubishi Chemical rose 3.8 percent after business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Japan's biggest chemical company expects operating profit to rise 9 percent in the half year ending Sept. 30.
In Singapore, soundcard maker Creative Technology rose 3 percent, while contract electronics maker Venture Manufacturing fell 1 percent.
In Sydney, Australia's leading airline Qantas jumped 4.2 percent. Air New Zealand said it would poach Qantas' deputy chief executive Gary Toomey to be its new head, ending weeks of speculation.
In other markets along the Pacific Rim, the KLSE composite in Malaysia rose 2.1 percent, Thailand's SET gained 1 percent, the JSX in Jakarta fell 2 percent and the PHS composite in Manila fell 0.5 percent. 
- from staff and wire reports
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