February 1, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1423

TOKYO, Jan 31: Asian stock markets were mixed on Friday, but sentiment was bearish with many regional bourses closed for the Lunar New Year holidays amid growing expectations of a US-led war on Iraq.

Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei were among the major markets closed, and Singapore was open for half a day, but Asia’s biggest bourse, Tokyo, was open and shook off an early slide to close marginally higher.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 23.13 points at 8,339.94, on speculation of public-pension fund buying in an attempt to keep the index above 8,300 points to limit the damage to the banks’ equity holdings and capital.

But broader gauges of the market were weaker, with the Topix index of all first section issues slipping 3.98 points to finish at 821.18.

In early trade, the Nikkei dropped to 8,237.03, just above the 20-year closing low of 8,234.90 reached on March 18, 1983.—AFP