Asia watch

ASIAN markets struggled to stay ahead as technology stocks were damned by faint progress from US chip giant Intel. Investors were alarmed by a slump of nearly 3% in the after-hours prices of Intel shares following a downbeat view of the first quarter, which dampened optimism over better-than-expected results in the previous three months.

The prospects of a delayed recovery in the semiconductor market hammered chip makers around the region. Japanese giant NEC fell more than 3%, while Taiwan Semiconductor and Korea's Samsung both lost more than 1%.

In Tokyo by midmorning the Nikkei 225 looked set to break back through 10,000 before a surge in banking stocks brought some support, and took the index back to 10,177.58 for a closing loss of 30.47.

Buyers moved in on the big banks following signs that creditors were set to grant some leeway to the struggling Daiei supermarket chain. Receding fears of another rise in bad debts saw bank stocks gain as much as 9%, while the retailer added about 5%.

Early trade had been subdued ahead of the Bank of Japan's monthly meeting on monetary policy. There was little surprise in markets when the bank decided to leave its policy broadly unchanged, despite the continuing economic woes.

Mildly encouraging retail sales figures from the US failed to cheer stocks of big Hong Kong traders that depend on the American market for their profits. The Alan Greenspan effect continued to pull down stocks in Li & Fung and electronic motor maker Johnson Electric. The Hang Seng index ended down 49.5 points at 10,964.1.

The index would probably have been deeper in the red but for a partial recovery in the stock of HSBC Holdings which edged up 25 cents to HK$87 after recent big falls on fears over its exposure to the Argentinian debt crisis.

Rumours that Morgan Stanley was about to promote South Korea from an emerging to a developed market encouraged overseas buyers, but the regional-wide technology slump carried the Kospi down 6.45 points to 712.19. Samsung Electronics dived more than 1% after the chipmaker disappointed investors with a 64% fall in fourth-quarter profits.

Taiwan stocks lost almost 2% of their value, as the Weighted Average slid 104.41 points to 5488.33. Quick profit-taking wiped out early gains that took computer manufacturer Acer 2% ahead on selective bargain-hunting.

Intel's pessimism about future sales flattened Singapore technology stocks, while banks drooped on weakening short-term prospects. The Straits Times index slid 19.9 points to 1674.5.

The battle in Sydney was between bears of News Corporation, which dived more than 2% on continuing worries over US earnings, and bulls of the bank stocks. After a mixed session the All Ordinaries index closed 77.1 points up at 3425.8. Normandy Mining reached a five-year high as US Newmont Mining stock rose overnight, raising the value of its bid for the group, which is also being chased by AngloGold.

Thailand stocks moved sharply ahead taking the SET index up 3.79 points to 327.09, but Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite dipped 1.43 points to 699.04. Indonesian stocks continued their recent rally on blue-chip buying and the Jakarta Composite climbed 8.04 points to 429.29.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.