Asia watch

MIXED signals from the US left Asian markets mildly confused as trade died away ahead of the year-end holidays. A jump of nearly 9% in housing starts was taken as positive sign of recovery, but profit warnings from aluminium giant Alcoa, and warnings from mobile phone group Motorola that it will axe more than 9,000 jobs kept alive doubts about the speed of any rebound.

In Tokyo Toshiba Corporation's belated decision to dump its basic chip business had little effect on regional semiconductor makers as the move followed similar action by other big Japanese manufacturers.

Reports that the Bank of Japan was preparing to ease liquidity as a means of boosting the ailing economy lifted banking stocks, although the best of the day's gains in the Nikkei 225 faded, and it closed 39.76 points up at 10,471.93.

All eyes were on the BoJ, and the possibility that it will bow to intense political pressure to ease monetary policy when it finishes its key two-day policy meeting today. With interest rates at zero, economists predict the BoJ will start pumping liquidity into the system by buying bonds from the beleaguered banks. This pushed their stocks up by as much as 2%. Extra liquidity would also put more downward pressure on the yen, a possibility that lifted big exporters, including car makers, where stocks were helped by a forecast from Honda Motor that sales next year would rise by 6%.

Motorola's announcement of an 8.5% cut in jobs hurt Japanese suppliers of components to the industry and falls ranged up to 2%, led by Kyocera.

A series of favourable property deals in Hong Kong provided a boost for shares in major developers and took the Hang Seng index up 78.3 points to 11,565.2. After months of stagnant demand, property companies are now reporting signs of interest in luxury apartments, where prices have slumped by as much as half from their pre-1997 peaks.

Prospects that Hong Kong will turn around next year were raised by a 2.1% third-quarter rise in gross domestic product figures, compared with a 1.6% contraction in the previous three months.

Property stocks in Singapore were also ahead on growing demand for apartments there, and the Straits Times index added 11.8 points to 1595.4.

Taiwan was the regional laggard for the third day in a row, as the weakening local currency raised concerns about the economy, and with bank shares leading the way the Weighted Average fell 107.23 points to 5221.96.

In South Korea, Toshiba's decision to offload its chipmaking interest to Micron of the US hurt shares of Hynix Semiconductor, which was in talks with Micron. Hynix stock fell by more than 5% after Micron said it would not take an equity stake in the debt-ridden group. This offset gains in Korean exporters, leaving the Kospi ahead by only 2.06 points at 645.82.

Stronger bank shares in an otherwise soporific Sydney market helped the All Ordinaries index to a gain of 59.7 points to 3324.1. In Thailand, the SET index crept up 1.56 points to 294.43, while Indonesia's Jakarta Composite drifted back 1.28 points to 373.41. Malaysian markets remained closed.

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.