LONDON (CNNfn) - Asian markets were closed mixed on Thursday, with setbacks for technology and telecom stocks pulling Tokyo to a narrow loss as investors turned cautious about increasingly rosy predictions of corporate profits. Banking and property stocks rose.
The Nikkei average of 225 stocks fell 40.41 points, or 0.25 percent, to close at 16,861.26, with Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, Japan's dominant telephone company, and chipmaker Toshiba leading declines.
"The recent tech gains were supported by a wave of upward revisions to earnings forecasts," said Takashi Miyazaki, senior strategist at Partners Asset Management. "But for those shares to go further from here, investors need to know how they are going to perform next year."
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong ended at 17,097.51, little changed from the previous day's close, as gains from HSBC Holdings, the territory's biggest bank, and property conglomerate Cheung Kong (Holdings), offsetting telecom losses.
 Singapore's Straits Times index fell 0.8 percent to 2,147.77, led by chipmaker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, down 4 percent.
South Korea's Kospi index fell 30.31 points, or 4.2 percent, to end the session at 688.62, and the tech-laced Kosdaq index fell 3.4 percent to 108.59. Samsung Electronics plunged 3 percent on concern that Intel Corp.'s (INTC: Research, Estimates) recall of its latest chip, might disrupt demand for DRAM chips.
In the currency market, the yen strengthened slightly to ¥106.32 per U.S. dollar from ¥106.52 in late New York trade Wednesday.
In Tokyo, computer and chipmaker Toshiba fell 3.7 percent, continuing to retreat from highs set after a 25 percent rally over the previous month. Rival NEC lost 0.3 percent, after gaining 16.5 percent in the two weeks to Wednesday. Hitachi fell 3.2 percent.
 Tire maker Bridgestone fell 6.3 percent, leaving the stock 45 percent below its level of a month ago, as legal pressure mounted on U.S. unit Firestone and on Ford Motor (F: Research, Estimates) after Venezuela's consumer protection agency said it had enough evidence to file criminal charges over faulty Firestone tires.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone fell 2.3 percent after Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said two of its local telephone companies, NTT West and NTT East, would halve calling rates to counter new competition.
Hong Kong banks rebound
In Hong Kong, HSBC Holdings rose 1 percent, Hang Seng Bank added 0.4 percent, and Bank of East Asia climbed 0.2 percent as dealers said investors returned to the sector to pick up some bargains after Wednesday's dip.
Property stocks gained on a report in the Hong Kong Economic Times that they planned to raise prices of residential flats. Cheung Kong rose 1 percent and Henderson Land climbed 0.9 percent.
China Mobile (Kong Kong) slipped 0.4 percent. China's largest wireless phone operator met analysts' expectations with first-half profit of 8.724 billion yuan ($1 billion) but revealed a steep drop in revenue per subscriber.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 60 points, or 1.8 percent, to close at 3,297.8 amid disappointment about some corporate earnings reports.
Telstra, the biggest telecom operator, fell 6.9 percent. The company reported a net profit for the year to June of A$4.04 billion ($2.3 billion) before one-time items, a little higher than analysts expected. However, asset sales and an accounting change added almost A$500 million to the result.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia dropped 3.8 percent after the previous day's statement that annual profit before one-time items amounted to A$1.7 billion, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, Taiwan's Weighted index rose almost 1 percent and Manila's PHS Composite edged up 0.8 percent. Jakarta's JSX lost 0.6 percent and Thailand's composite SET index fell 0.9 percent, 
--from staff and wire reports
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