Asian Markets Update: Stocks Edge Higher in Most Parts of Region

Taiwan stocks bounce on government support, and Australia's Westpac surges on big profit growth.

Author:: Philip Segal
Publish date:: May 5, 2000 4:59 AM EDT

HONG KONG -- Asian stocks rose modestly in most of the region's markets that were open Friday, following the mixed signals overnight in U.S. markets.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark

Hang Seng

index fell 45.43 points, or 0.52%, to 15,268.64. Property developer

Cheung Kong

(CHEUY)

fell HK$2.00, or 2.3%, to 85.25, after

Standard & Poor's

put the company's credit rating under review. Cheung Kong's subsidiary,

Hutchison Whampoa,

(HUWHY)

has already been put on CreditWatch by S&P. Hutchison fell 0.50 to 106.50, having been well-hammered earlier in the week. Both companies are on review because of the money Hutchison will have to spend in developing a third-generation mobile phone business in the U.K.

Banking group

HSBC

(HBC)

fell 0.25 to 85.75, and mainland mobile phone network operator

China Telecom

(CHL) - Get Report

was unchanged at 58.25.

Markets in Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Thailand were closed for

national holidays

. Japanese stocks have not traded since Tuesday after the start of the "Golden Week" series of holidays. Business in Tokyo gets back to normal on Monday.

Taiwan's

TWSE

index rose 273.15 points, or 3.2%, to 8698.53 after the government ordered that more public funds be injected into the market to support stock prices. Taiwan is a technology-heavy market and has suffered in the past month as tech stocks worldwide have been subjected to re-evaluation by investors. Foundry chipmaker

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

(TSM) - Get Report

gained NT$5.00, or 2.7%, to 192.00, while its rival

UMC

rose 6.00 to 106.00, a gain of 6%.

Australia's

All Ordinaries

index rose 49.70 points, or 1.6%, to 3075.60.

Westpac Bank

(WBK) - Get Report

surged by 5%, up A$0.52 to 10.95, after reporting first-half earnings rose 17% year-on-year to 41.5 Australian cents a share. An increase in Australian interest rates this week had contributed to lower stock prices earlier.

Mining giant

Broken Hill Proprietary

(BHP) - Get Report

fell 0.11, or 0.6%, to 17.52, after reporting today that it lost A$46 million in the third quarter, which ended March 31.

Telstra

(TLS)

fell 0.30 to 6.95. After some hefty falls this week,

Newscorp

(NWS) - Get Report

rallied by 0.50, or 2.4%, to 21.20.