SINGAPORE, Nov 12 - Asian markets steadied on Wednesday after two days of weakness in stocks and volatility in the yen, with strong earnings from telecoms giant NTT <9432.T> lifting Japanese shares off three-month lows. Stock benchmarks were as much as 1.1 percent stronger as investors tried to gauge whether economic indicators and corporate earnings warranted further gains in shares. Shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT), the world's largest telecoms group by sales, surged 9.8 percent after the company said on Tuesday its half-year group net profit jumped nearly 12-fold. That led the Nikkei average <.N225> up 0.4 percent in morning trade to 10,251.08. It fell three percent to a three-month low on Tuesday.
An MSCI index of shares elsewhere in the Asia Pacific <.MSCIAPJ> was up 0.3 percent at around 0220 GMT. "Generally, the market's a bit firmer with a bit more support for the banks and the expectation that the U.S. economy has had a bit of a correction and will now stabilise and improve," said Rick Klusman, a senior adviser at Patterson Ord Minnett in Australia, where the benchmark index <.AXJO> rose a quarter of a percent. The dollar was steady against the yen , supported by fears of Japanese intervention after it hit a three-year-low of 107.86 yen on Monday. It was trading at 108.82 yen, little changed from the late U.S. level of 108.78. The euro was a touch stronger at 125.44 yen, some way above a 10-month low of 124.18 hit on Monday, and at $1.5524.
JGBS GAIN
Japanese government bond (JGB) prices extended gains after worries the economy could lose steam helped generate healthy demand at a five-year JGB auction on Tuesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB <0#JPTSY=JBTC> fell 0.025 percentage point to 1.370 percent. Gold was steady at $387.50 an ounce versus $387.60 in late U.S. trade. U.S. oil dipped five cents to $31.10 a barrel. Asian shares shrugged off losses on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> lost 0.6 percent. U.S. investors were awaiting further evidence that the economy is gathering momentum, traders said. A rebound in top lender Kookmin Bank <060000.KS> and power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) <015760.KS> led the South Korean benchmark <.KS11> up 1.1 percent. "It is considered largely a technical rebound," said Kim Joon-hyun, an analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities. "But investors appear reluctant to invest aggressively in stocks as U.S. markets are undergoing a correction this week." Kookmin rose 1.6 percent and KEPCO jumped 2.4 percent. UBS upgraded its rating on KEPCO shares to "buy" from "neutral". In Australia, life insurer AMP fell 1.8 percent on doubts about whether it is a takeover target for National Australia Bank . NAB rose 1.7 percent and St George , another potential NAB target, rallied 1.8 percent. Hong Kong shares <.HSI> rose 0.1 percent while benchmark indices rose 0.4 percent in Singapore <.STI> and Taiwan <.TWII>.//