Nikkei above 9600; HK rebounds

Tokyo's Nikkei index climbed back into the black Thursday after Wednesday's 682 point fall.

TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks fought their way back into the black by midday Thursday, with the Nikkei ending the morning session up just 0.12 percent.

The cautious recovery followed a 6.7 percent slide the previous day in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong were among other markets in the region to be up.

Taiwan and Malaysia, which were both shut Wednesday, opened lower.

Markets in the U.S. remained closed and may not reopen until Friday or possibly Monday.

In Tokyo, the market was volatile, moving in and out of the red. The benchmark Nikkei 225 average was up 11.50 points at 9,621.60 by midday, after slipping below the 9,500 level for the first time since December 1983.

Tokyo's capital-weighted TOPIX index rose 0.31 percent or 3.10 points to 993.90.

Marketing waiting for U.S. response

"This is not a rebound, it's just a break. Europe settled and there's no reason Japan should plummet on its own," said Masaharu Sakudo, senior managing director at Tachibana Securities.

"The market's waiting to see how the U.S. government will respond and whether that will help dull Wall Street's likely slide."

Japan's dominant mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo made an impressive rally. Its shares rose 8.77 percent to 1.24 million yen after a strong performance by its European peers. DoCoMo's parent Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) put on 4.39 percent to 476,000 yen, snapping a six-day losing spell.

NTT may delay stock sale

Japanese media reported the government was considering foregoing the sale of part of its stake in the top telecoms firm this fiscal year to prevent damage to the faltering stock market.

Blue-chip exporters fell on fears U.S. consumers would suffer a drop in confidence after the attacks.

Toyota Motor Corp fell 4.41 percent to 3,250 yen, while consumer electronics giant Sony Corp shed 4.02 percent to 4,540.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was up about 1 percent by midday to 3139.1, with gains by telecoms giant Telstra, media group News Corp and miner BHP Billiton. Australian banks also recovered

The market had lost about 4 percent the previous day.

In Seoul, the Kospi rebounded sharply from its 12 percent plunge Wednesday.

It opened about 2 percent up, and continued to climb, putting on 18 points as blue chips such as SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics made good gains. It settled slightly, to be up 2.7 percent for the morning at 489.04.

Air New Zealand wins government support

Air New Zealand's Ansett subsidiary has been put into voluntary administration

New Zealand was up about 1.1 percent by early afternoon on gains by Telecom NZ.

Shares in troubled carrier Air New Zealand were suspended ahead of a recapitalisation plan unveiled later in the day.

Air New Zealand's money-losing subsidiary, Australian domestic carrier Ansett, was placed in voluntary administration late Wednesday after rival Qantas declined to take it over.

About midday, the New Zealand government announced it would allow Singapore Airlines to lift its stake in Air NZ from 25 percent to 35 percent, and also announced it would make a NZ$550 million credit facility available to Air NZ.

Singapore Airlines and 30 percent Air NZ shareholder Brierley Investments agreed to inject NZ$300 million between them into the carrier.

Another market under close scrutiny Thursday was Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index slumped almost 10 percent Wednesday.

In morning trade, the Hang Seng made ground, and was up about 0.7 percent to 9616 shortly before midday.

Reuters contributed to this report.