Asia opens week on bright note

Sunday, July 10, 2005; Posted: 10:25 p.m. EDT (02:25 GMT)

Asian stocks are rebounding Monday after falling last week in the wake of the London attacks.

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TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan's Nikkei 225 share average is up more than 1 percent at the midday break on Monday as healthy gains on Wall Street, inspired by modest U.S. job creation, encourage investors to buy Toyota Motor Corp. and other blue chips.

The brighter note is being repeated throughout the Asian region, where markets which eased Friday following the London bombing attacks are rebounding.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 has finished the morning session up 1.06 percent or 122.22 points at 11,688.21.

It had fallen in the previous four trading days due to doubts about Japan's economic outlook and the global nervousness after Thursday's bombings in London.

The broader TOPIX index is up 0.79 percent at 1,186.91.

Among carmakers, Honda is 1.3 percent ahead, followed by gains of 1.2 percent for Toyota and 1 percent for Nissan.

Consumer electronics and tech-related stocks such as Sony, Canon, Toshiba, Hitachi and Fujitsu are all strongly in the black.

South Korea is doing even better, with the Kospi up 1.5 percent to 1037.36. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics up 2.5 percent.

Taiwan is about 1 percent ahead and Singapore is up 0.5 percent.

Australian stocks are also about half a percent higher at midday, with miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto boosted by higher metal prices.

The benchmark Australian S&P/ASX 200 index is 0.58 percent ahead to 4,253.4, after falling 1.02 percent last week to a more than three-week closing low.

BHP, which has an 8.4 percent weighting in the Australian index, rallied 1.4 percent to A$18.64 and rival Rio climbed 1.3 percent to A$46.36.

U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Friday, boosted by strong earnings from Alcoa, modest job creation and a drop in oil prices below $60 a barrel.

"The U.S. rally should help," said Andrew King, equities analyst at Invesco Australia, adding that resources would be aided by strong metal prices.

The New Zealand market started firmer, with the benchmark NZSX-50 index up 28.45 points, or 0.87 percent, to 3,285.96.

Top share Telecom was 0.5 percent higher at NZ$6.10.