Asian metal and mining stocks such as Rio Tinto and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. climbed Wednesday on an increase in nonferrous metal prices, disregarding Alcoa Inc.'s decision to slash jobs and curb output in response to the global economic downturn.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index gained 158.40 points, or 1.74%, to close at 9,239.24, a two-month closing high while the benchmark Hang Seng Index shed 522.05 points, or 3.37%, to close at 14987.46.
Tech stocks advanced following the gains made overnight by their U.S. counterparts. Advantest jumped 7.07%, Kyocera gained 6.65% and Fanuc climbed 9.42%. Banking stocks also closed mostly higher. Mitsubishi UFJ rose 2.11%, Mizuho Financial added 0.35% and Resona Holdings gained 2.15%, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial gave away 2.53%.
Among export-oriented stocks, Canon jumped 11.45%, Komatsu gained 4.40% and Sony surged 8.73%. Sharp climbed 12.42%. The company said it hopes to expand production of solar batteries. Automaker Toyota rose 3.28%, Mazda jumped 14.82% and Nissan climbed 9.68%. Honda gained 11.00% despite a report in the Nikkei business daily that the company has decided to delay the launch of a passenger car plant in Argentina by six months or more from the originally scheduled second half of this year as demand drops in South America.
In the oil sector, Inpex Holdings climbed 5.67%, Nippon Oil advanced 1.61% and Showa Shell added 1.95%. Trading house Mitsubishi gained 5.39%, Marubeni rose 7.45% and Itochu jumped 7.22%.
NEC Corp. said Tuesday it had latent securities losses totaling 87.6 billion yen for its fiscal third quarter through December. The company added that it was uncertain whether the loss would have any impact on its earnings for the three months. However, the company's stock advanced 4.98%.
Toshiba Corp. plans to triple its capacity to manufacture equipment for hydroelectric power plants in China by 2015. The company's stock jumped 7.33%.
Elsewhere:
Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 33 points, or 1.73%, to close at 1,881.
China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 13 points, or 0.68%, to end at 1,924.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index gave away 14 points, or 0.98% to close at 1,421.
Taiwan's Weighted Index gained 63 points, or 1.32%, to settle at 4,790.
Malaysia's KLSE Composite advanced 5 points to settle at 928.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, rose 33.89 points, or 2.84%, to close at 1,228.17.
The benchmark NZX 50 index declined 19.13 points, or 0.69%, to settle at 2,764.24.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index surged 37 points or 0.99% to close at 3779.70.
with files from other wire services
