Advantest leads as chips sizzle

JAPAN'S Advantest and a swathe of its hi-tech peers made the running in Asian trade as investors were buoyed by solid US corporate earnings.

The company, which makes equipment for testing computer memory chips, surged 190 yen to 4070 yen, a gain of 4.9%.

The market focused on reasonably positive first-quarter earnings from Intel, which makes most of the chips in personal computers, and software giant Microsoft.

Punters also played down fresh macro-economic data that showed US manufacturing dropped for a second month in March, a statistic that underscores problems in the world's largest economy.

Tokyo Electron, the world's second-largest maker of semiconductor production equipment, gained 220 yen, or 5.2%, to 4410 yen. Takeda Chemicals was among the high-profile losers, the latest victim of fears that it will suffer heavy share sales by Japan's pension funds. The drugs maker sank 170 yen, or 4.2%, to 3840 yen, its lowest standing in five years. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average extended Tuesday's gains to close up 40.66 points at 7879.49.

In South Korea, memory-chip maker Samsung Electronics climbed on broadly positive news from the US, gaining 13,500 won, or 4.5%, to 305,000 won. Hynix Semiconductor rocketed by the daily limit of 15% to 4025 won. Reports suggested the administration in Seoul may try to broker a deal with Washington to pare punitive tariffs set to be imposed on Hynix for allegedly receiving illegal government subsidies.

Hyundai Motor jumped amid perceptions that it had been oversold in recent sessions. It rose 1800 won, or 6.5%, to 29,350 won. The Kospi index closed 16.35 points higher at 621.34, a 2.5% gain.

Speculation that another mining takeover may be in the offing pepped up stocks in Australia. A week after London-listed Xstrata agreed a deal to take over MIM, WMC Resources was the target of talk that it could be approached by Anglo American. WMC perked up 13 cents, or 3.4%, to A$4.

Telstra, Australia's biggest telecoms outfit, drifted lower after it reiterated that it expected flat revenues and pre-tax profits for the year ending June. It dipped three cents to A$4.22. The All Ordinaries index added 47.4 points to 2979.8.

Hong Kong- listed China National Aviation - which controls Air Macau and regional carrier Dragonair, got a dose of the flu. It said the killer Sars virus would hurt its first-half showing. The shares fell a cent to HK$1.03, extending recent declines that have clipped its market capitalisation by about a fifth.

Its larger peer, Cathay Pacific Airways, was five cents lower at HK$8.70, in a narrowly firmer market. Analysts have clipped annual earnings forecasts for the airline by about 25% to HK$2.7bn (£220m). JP Morgan said the current crisis for the carrier was 'far greater than anything seen post- 9.11'.

The Hang Seng index was ahead by 36.7 points at 8668.8.

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