Mixed signals dampen Dell optimism

SOME solid good news on the personal computers front lifted technology stocks around Asia, but mixed signals on the US economy left other stocks drifting and most markets edged down.

Sound second-quarter earnings from Dell Corporation, the world's second largest PC group, and a forecast of record sales in the current quarter rallied computer-related stocks around the region. Other exporters failed to respond to a spate of good earnings figures from US retailers that kept Wall Street's rally going overnight. Instead, investors worried about a slowdown in US manufacturing after industrial output in July had its smallest gain since April, reinforcing fears that the economy is slowing once more.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average slipped 7.44 to 9788.13 in rice-paper thin trading as advances in technology stocks were countered by big falls in pharmaceuticals. Fears that the industry is about to get an overdose of competition were raised by a deal which will see the Roche Holdings giant taking control of Chugai Pharmaceutical by the end of the year. Further signs that Japan's once tightly held corporations are coming into play came from reports in a local trade journal that Intel, the world's biggest chip-maker, is planning to snap up Japanese manufacturers, and this triggered rises of up to 2% among potential targets.

Other chip stocks benefited from Dell's report, which lifted hopes that the end of the PC sales slide may be in sight. Sony, a big supplier of monitors to Dell, firmed by around 0.5%, but there was a more enthusiastic response among tech stocks in South Korea and Taiwan.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest supplier of made-to-measure chips and a big client of the US PC maker, jumped 2.5% in Seoul, providing most of the impetus for a 5.44-point rise to 716.68 on the Kospi. South Korean stocks were also helped by data from the Korean Stock Exchange showing that local companies filed record first-half profits.

Foreign buyers descended on Taiwan's chip-makers, taking the Weighted Average up in early trading, but local profit-taking soon turned the gain into a 5.5-point loss to 4925.97.

Hong Kong investors refused to commit themselves to stocks until a firmer trend on the US economy emerges, and the Hang Seng index drifted back 6.17 points to 10,213.54, narrowly above the resistance level of 10,200. The bounce in US retail earnings helped local garment exporter Li & Fung, which numbers Gap as one of its American customers, and after producing better-than-expected results, the stock jumped almost 5%.

Australian investors continued to back Rupert Murdoch's prediction-that the US market is improving for his News Corporation media giant and the shares added 3%. Resources stocks also firmed, helping the All Ordinaries to a 12.9-point rise to 3089.7, but action in the sector was dominated by a 20% surge in the price of Anaconda Nickel after it arranged a debt workout with creditors of a subsidiary.

Singapore's Straits Times index failed to respond to the regional rise in tech stocks, and fell 1.76 to 1530.08, but Wall Street's gains helped the Kuala Lumpur Composite to a 4.65-point gain to 738.72.

Thailand's SET index added 1.53 points to 373.15, and the Jakarta Composite rose 2.10 to 450.84.

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.