DoCoMo split beats Tokyo blues

A GRIM warning that NTT DoCoMo faces huge write-offs at the end of this month failed to dent shares of the mobile phones giant today. They advanced a further 3%, building on Wednesday's gains sparked by local demand following a share split that cut the cost of a share to a fifth of its previous price.

NTT's DoCoMo's resilience offset a sell-off in Japanese technology stocks and tumbling retail shares, while continuing firm performance of banks also helped to lift the Nikkei 225 9.43 points to 11,333.11. Other Asian markets were mixed as investors looked for further evidence that the strength of the global recovery justified large gains in the region.

Losses on NTT DoCoMo's investments in global mobile phone networks were reported in Tokyo to be as high as one trillion yen (£5.4bn), and would push it into losses for the first time. Among the hits it will take are those on investments in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings and AT&T Wireless Services, said the newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, but traders reported that the losses were already in the price.

Falls in Japan's computer-related counters reached 2% as profit-taking set in, but the real weight on the market was retailers. Their sales fell 6.1% in February, the 11th fall in a row, as warmer weather killed sales of winter clothing. Falls of up to 2% were led by the Seven-Eleven convenience stores chain.

An upgrade in the credit rating of South Korea left stocks wavering, as the Kospi index bounced around 900 before coming to rest virtually unchanged at 902.68, up 0.2. The country's credit rating was raised two notches to A3 by Moody's Investors Service, which credited the country with solid economic growth, smaller overseas debt and government progress in cleaning up banking. The biggest mover was battered chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor, which awaits a rescue from the US Micron Group. The stock soared 7% after the company reported that first-quarter earnings were running ahead of expectations.

In Hong Kong, assurances from mainland cellphone operator China Unicom that it would not indulge in any price war cheered the shares, which rose 1.7%, helping to push the Hang Seng index up 45 points to 11,032.9. International fund managers are unlikely to be impressed. They are now underweight of the market for the first time since June 2000, according to a Dow Jones poll published today. The sluggish local economy is making other Asian markets much more attractive, said the managers. This failed to stop local buyers taking advantage of recent weakness in property companies and banks.

Taiwan's semiconductor stocks continued to lead the market higher despite falls in other sectors, and the Weighted Average added 62.17 points to 6209.92.

Blue-chips rose in Singapore on global recovery hopes, taking the Straits Times index up 19.4 points to 1814.6. Resource stocks continued to underpin the All Ordinaries index in Sydney, but gains were limited by a retreat in bank shares after a recent rally. The index closed unchanged at 3360.4. Thailand's SET index was 3.52 higher at 380.62. In Malaysia the Kuala Lumpur Composite index edged up 0.79 to 757.3, and in Indonesia the Jakarta Composite index put on 6.75 points to 488.03.

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