Here is a look at Wednesday's top business stories:
Stocks rise in Asia
TOKYO, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended slightly higher Wednesday, showing surprising resilience despite potentially damaging political debate on how Japan should be dealing with banks' massive non-performing loans.
The blue-chip Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selective issues, which fell 289.02 points Tuesday, rose 25.13 points, or 0.3 percent, to 8,714.52. The broader Topix Index added 3.60 points, or 0.4 percent, to 866.14.
Volume improved slightly to an estimated 748.65 million shares from 744.04 million shares changing hands on Tuesday. Advances outpaced declines, 742 to 600, while another 151 issues settled unchanged.
Analysts said the Nikkei recovered from its intraday low of 8,499.49, largely supported by public pension funds' sporadic buying as well as quiet, but steady buying of key blue chip shares by foreigners.
Unlike Tuesday's session, the Nikkei was not hurt by massive selling of futures. However, the index's gains were capped after it hit 8,758.67 about an hour before the closing bell.
Despite this surprising resilience, traders said the Nikkei is still walking on thin ice. How the market will fare depends on whether Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi comes up with an effective safety net to prevent a financial meltdown as the government purges banks' non-performing-loans.
But traders and fund managers generally welcomed signs the government is finally taking steps to undergo painful surgery on the nation's banking system. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Bank and Economy Minister Heizo Takenaka will meet with heads of four megabanks later Wednesday to explain the bad-loan measures.
Takenaka was forced to postpone Tuesday's announcement of his project team's interim report due to strong opposition from ruling Liberal Democratic Party politicians. In addition to urging a stricter stance on banks' loan loss reserves and their calculation of capital, the report was expected to threaten the nationalization of some banks.
In trading, megabank shares fell on financial sector fears of Takenaka's bad-loan cleanup proposal. Mizuho Holdings fell 6.9 percent, UFJ Holdings lost 5.8 percent, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi fell 2.6 percent and Sumitomo Trust and Banking lost 3.5 percent.
Brokerage shares also ended lower. Daiwa Bank Holdings fell 3.2 percent while Nomura Holdings slipped 1.1 percent.
Elsewhere, Nissan Motor, which raised its fiscal half and full-year earnings forecasts shortly after the closing bell, gained 2.3 percent.
Sharp gained 3.1 percent following the company's announcement it has fabricated monolithic CPUs (central processing unit) on glass substrate, making computers and personal digital appliances lighter and thinner.
Meanwhile, the telecom sector enjoyed a bullish day despite the harsh global earnings environment. NTT DoCoMo rose 3.7 percent, NTT added 2.6 percent, Japan Telecom jumped 4.1 percent and KDDI gained 7.7 percent.
Among some of the other active issues, Tokyo Electron rose 3.8 percent, Kyocera added 2.4 percent and Sony Corp. improved 1.3 percent.
Elsewhere in Asia, prices ended sharply higher on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, lifted by strength in telecom issues. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index, which slipped 21.42 points Tuesday, jumped 255.71 points, or 2.7 percent, to 9,804.65.
The key index of 33 blue chips opened marginally lower at 9,545.66, then shrugged off weakness in U.S. markets and shot to a high of 9,809.51.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, gave the Hang Seng Index its biggest boost as its stock climbed 5.0 percent.
Among some of the other active issues, Hong Kong's fixed-line phone firm PCCW jumped 9.2 percent, top Chinese computer maker Legend Holdings jumped 6.8 percent and ports-to-telecom conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa gained 3.6 percent.
Meanwhile, prices on the Taiwan Stock Exchange rose to their highest level in one month. The Weighted Index, which lost 77.06 points Tuesday, jumped 203.42 points, or 4.6 percent, to 4,589.88.
In trading, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing gained 3.5 percent despite news the world's foundry leader posted a smaller-than-expected net profit for the third quarter and sales declined 10 percent.
The company said it expected revenue to bottom out in the next two quarters and forecasted renewed sequential quarterly growth starting from the second quarter of fiscal 2003. "We expect our year 2003 revenues to represent double-digit growth over our year 2002 revenues," the company said.
Meanwhile, United Microelectronics jumped 6.2 percent and flat-panel screen maker AU Optronics climbed 6.6 percent.
Prices also ended higher on the South Korean Stock Exchange, lifted by strength in high technology issues. The key Kospi Composite Index, which dropped 13.90 points Tuesday, rose 18.16 points, or 2.8 percent, to 657.43.
Hyundai Engineering and Construction extended its gains, rising another 5.4 percent. Investors continued to welcome the company's aggressive cost cutting efforts, including a reduction of 240 senior jobs, or about 5.7 percent of its total workforce.
Samsung Electronics gained 2.7 percent. Samsung will provide wireless communications equipment and financial and technical support at the Torino 2006 Olympic winter games and Beijing 2008 Olympic games.
Elsewhere around the Pacific region, prices ended higher on the Australian Stock Exchange. The blue-chip All Ordinaries Index, which rose 12.90 points Tuesday, gained another 26.50 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,987.20.
Santos topped the actives, rising 1 percent after the oil and gas company said third quarter revenue rose 8.1 percent from a year-ago period helped by higher oil prices.
Lucent posts 10th consecutive loss
MURRAY HILL, N.J., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. posted its 10th consecutive quarterly loss as its telephone company customers continued to slash spending.
Lucent, which earlier this month said it would cut another 10,000 jobs, posted a net loss in its fiscal fourth quarter of $2.88 billion, or 84 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $8.8 billion, or $2.59 a share during the same period last year.
Excluding one-time items, the loss in the latest quarter was 64 cents a share.
Analysts on Wall Street were expecting Lucent to report a loss of 65 cents a share before one-time items, according to Thomson First Call.
Lucent said its pro forma revenues fell 23 percent to $2.28 billion from $2.95 billion in the third fiscal quarter and was consistent with its previous guidance. The company recorded $4.75 billion in pro forma revenues in the year-ago quarter.
On an as-reported basis, revenues for the fourth fiscal quarter declined 56 percent to $2.28 billion from $5.16 billion a year ago.
Patricia Russo, chief executive officer, said, "Our top priority is returning Lucent to profitability by the end of fiscal year 2003, while helping our customers address the critical networking and business issues they are facing today.
"We are taking actions that will reduce our cost and expense structure to achieve quarterly breakeven revenue at $2.5 billion by the end of fiscal 2003, and we are working to reduce it further. At the same time, we are maintaining an industry-leading portfolio that will enable us to emerge as a more focused business when the market returns," Russo said.
Looking ahead, the company said that due to the ongoing market decline, it expects that revenues could be flat to down approximately 10 percent for the first quarter of fiscal year 2003, but with sequential improvement in the bottom line.
While not forecasting any improvement in the overall market, Lucent said it expects an increase in its revenues to about $2.5 billion in the second quarter of fiscal year 2003 based on conversations with its customers.
The company said it continues to work toward a return to profitability in late fiscal year 2003.
The company also expects to end fiscal year 2003 with more than $2 billion in cash without utilizing any new credit facility.
Lucent reaffirmed that it has sufficient liquidity to fund its plans. The company anticipates its most significant cash usage will occur in the first quarter of fiscal year 2003, with marked improvements in cash flow in the second quarter and beyond.
