Japan's Nikkei stock average climbed 1.6 percent on Thursday to its highest level since last's month quake. Stocks were helped by better-than-expected domestic earnings and strength in U.S. shares.

The benchmark Nikkei closed the day up 157 points.

The broader Topix rose just under 12 points.

The Nikkei also picked up momentum after breaking through its closely watched 200-day moving average of 9,814.

Japanese markets are closed Friday and will reopen on Monday, ahead of more holidays next week.

Honda and Hyundai Motor provided starkly different pictures for the year ahead, with uncertainty surrounding the Japanese automaker, but explosive growth expected for the top South Korean carmaker.

Japan's number three carmaker posted a 52 percent fall in operating profit, and left out guidance for the year ahead.

Honda and its Japanese counterparts are still trying to figure out when parts suppliers will fully recover, making it difficult to provide any projections for the new business year that began in April.

In contrast, the South Korean automaker blew past estimates for the first quarter, with consolidated quarterly operating profit up 45 percent to $1.7 billion.

And Hyundai's momentum is set to pick up in the current April-June quarter and beyond. Hyundai and affiliate Kia are targeting 6.33 million in sales this year, a figure that could put them on par with top Japanese automaker, Toyota.

Analysts forecast annual output of between 6.3 million to seven million vehicles for Toyota.

Hyundai and affiliate Kia are enjoying higher pricing, in part due to output cuts in Japan.

South Korean carmakers are least affected by Japan's auto component shortage, as they use fewer Japanese parts in their vehicles, compared to others like GM.

Hyundai and Kia's combined market share is also seen rising, as some drivers turn to non-Japanese makes to avoid long waiting times.

Hyundai's shares jumped seven percent to close at a record high Thursday.

Apple's iPad 2 finally landed in Japan on Thursday (April 28), a month behind the originally scheduled arrival date due to last month's earthquake.

Still, the Japanese are among the earliest to receive the new tablet in Asia, and hundreds of fans thronged Apple stores in Tokyo before official opening hours, trying to be among the first to get the latest Apple gadget in the region.

[Yukihiko Hata, Business Consultant]:
"I wanted to get it in my hand as early as possible to show off to my friends, so I don't mind lining up from early morning."

The new version of Apple's tablet debuted in the United States last month.

The 10-inch touch screen iPad 2 is thinner and faster than the previous version, and comes with a pair of cameras for video chat.

Some impatient fans had tried to get one earlier overseas - but unsuccessfully.

[Keiko Oda, Businesswoman]:
"I tried to buy one in New York last week, but I couldn't, even though I went to three different shops. So, I've been determined to grab one in Japan on its first day of sale."

The iPad 2 goes on sale in many other Asian countries on Friday (April 29), including Singapore and South Korea, before hitting the Chinese market on May 6th.

Japanese automakers may continue to lose around $36 billion in revenue between April and June.

According to Japan's Nikkei financial daily, the 57 percent fall in total production for March, translates into a combined revenue loss of $12 billion for the eight automakers.

And with many analysts predicting roughly the same shortfall for the current June quarter, this means continuing industry-wide revenue losses of $12 billion each month.

Toyota saw a crushing 63 percent fall in its March volumes.

And with the top carmaker saying it expects cuts to persist till the end of the year, Toyota is expected to lose its crown to General Motors and fall behind Volkswagen to number 3.

Toyota is forecast to produce between 6.3 to 7 million vehicles this year, compared to 8.4 million vehicles in 2010.

Shares of Japanese automakers fell Tuesday, but South Korea's Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors stayed near record highs, on optimism they would benefit from a prolonged slump in Japanese output.

Analysts say Hyundai, GM and Ford Motor stand to be the biggest winners in the Japanese and North American markets.

Latecomer Sony unveiled its first tablet computers Tuesday, taking a crucial step toward its ambitious goal of becoming the world's second biggest tablet maker after Apple.

Even as rivals pushed out a slew of models over the past months, Sony took its time, emphasizing the need to differentiate its tablets from others.

This patience has produced the market's first dual-screen tablet called the S2, that comes with 5.5 inch displays.

Sony's Kunimasa Suzuki says the firm had mobility and convenience in mind.

[Kunimasa Suzuki, Deputy President, Sony Consumer Products]:
"We adopted a design that users can fold and carry easily."

Sony's S1 has a 9.4 inch display. Both run on Google's Android operating system, and are WiFi and 3/4G compatible.

The tablets will also allow PlayStation games.

Fans and early adopters still face a four-month wait though for the tablets.

[Kunimasa Suzuki, Deputy President, Sony Consumer Products]:
"Both S1 and S2 will begin to be sold to customers worldwide from the fall of 2011."

The company raised eyebrows in January, when it said it was aiming to be number two in the tablet market within a year. It did not even have a tablet on the market at the time.

Apple released its first iPad a year ago.

Research firm Gartner says sales of tablet devices are expected to quadruple to about 294 million units over the next four years, with nearly half that Android-based.

Sony shares underperformed the broader market, closing over two percent lower Tuesday.

Japan's No.2 automaker Nissan says its market share in the United States may fall due to a lack of auto parts from Japan.

Nissan's assessment follows a similar statement by rival Toyota, which said that the world's largest automaker may have to lower its 2011 U.S. sales target - if supply disruptions continue into the summer.

Automakers have been plagued by parts shortages, especially specialized electronics, since the earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan last month.

Nissan's North American chairman said the next few weeks would be "critical" to gauging the outlook for further supply problems.

The U.S. market share of Nissan has been on the rise in recent years, reaching nearly ten percent in the latest business year.

Nissan hopes to return to full production by around June if the supply chain can support increased quotas.

Before India opened up its economy, this was a rarity.

Fast-forward 20 years, and this factory outside of New Delhi is pumping out a new color TV every few seconds.

India has come a long way, says the COO of LG India.

[Yasho V. Verma, Chief Operating Officer, LG India]:
"India is known for a word in Hindi known as 'jugaad': for everything to be done in a short-term way. That thinking is changing now. That's a major shift in the manufacturing sector."

But the Indian government wants more. The trade ministry is hoping to double exports in the next three years to offset its rising import bill and lower its big current account deficit.

Most multi-nationals have their sites firmly on the booming domestic market with exports accounting for only 5-10%.

But this is the exception the Indian government would like to see replicated.

Hyundai Motors was one of the first big foreign firms to set up a major factory in India.

Now their two plants here have become Hyundai's largest exporting hub outside of South Korea.

One of their directors says the arrival of multinationals raised the bar on Indian production standards.

[Arvind Saxena, Director & Board Member, Hyundai India]:
"With all the advent of multinational companies in India in the last 15 or 20 years, we have started practicing lots of global practices of manufacturing, quality. So I think it's totally different to what it was earlier."

But is India about to become the next China-like manufacturing hub for international goods? Perennial infrastructure problems, like poor roads and not enough ports, limit exports.

And while many government policies are business friendly, others can be contradictory and the tendency of the government to make sudden changes makes it hard for companies to plan, according to GM India's CEO.

[Karl Slym, Chief Executive Officer, GM India]:
"If you know what the outlook is what the playing field is than you can plan accordingly for that. But if you start out playing football on a football field and then all of a sudden you're trying to play on a cricket field you've got the wrong equipment to be able to perform the best."

But no company denies the huge growth of the domestic market and most say that makes it viable for them to ramp up manufacturing in the short term with an eye to increasing exports in the medium term.

The CEO of GE India says one vital change has been the improvement of local suppliers.

[John Flannery, Chief Executive Officer, GE India]:
"I've been here living in the country for 18 months, I've been coming here for 10 years, and I can tell you in the 18 months I've seen a huge difference. The things that we would ask or expect of our supply chain today are quite different than what we could even think about two years ago."

And the benefits are cyclical.

The multi-nationals might be expanding their operations in India, pumping out big brand products like pink fridges popular with the Indian consumer, but there's a whole ancillary industry that's booming off the back of it, as local companies are increasing supplying the parts.

Flowers grown abroad like gerberas, lilies, carnations and American roses have taken over the local market in the Moradabad District of India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

A flower cultivator says that the availability of foreign flowers year round has made business more profitable.

[Tinku Shrama, Flower Cultivator]:
"The foreign flowers we grow are profitable and sell in every season."

A botany professor says foreign flowers attract both customers and cultivators.

[K. K. Gupta, Botany Professor]:
"Yes, definitely flowers are in high demand for decoration purposes. In that regard, foreign flowers have new and different varieties and we always try to introduce such flowers, which are attractive."

A number of cultivators in Moradabad are growing foreign flowers in the hope of earning greater profits.

Many farmers have also opted to substitute traditional farming with flower cultivation.

American International Group sees no point in putting its Taiwan life insurer up for sale again and will stop funding new business at Nan Shan Life, if its on-going attempt fails.

AIG has been trying to sell Nan Shan Life for 18 months now, with one deal rejected, and the second progressing slowly under stiff conditions imposed by the regulator.

Acting CEO Richard Bender is hoping for a deal and a quick decision.

[Richard Bender, Acting CEO, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.]:
"You've gone through a fair process twice, and it leads you to wonder if you can't do it in one of these two ways, what's the point of trying yet a third time? When you thought you've made a good choice this time, based on what you learned the first time, I don't know how you go back into the process yet one more time to do it, that would be a difficult thing to do I think."

Giving his first interview since taking the role in October last year, Bender adds plan B would be to stop investing in the business, with no further injections of management expertise, or capital.

[Richard Bender, Acting CEO, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.]:
"What would happen would be that we would have to curtail the business, and that would have an impact obviously on agents as they derive a fair amount of income if not most of their income from new business sales."

AIG has struggled with Taiwan financial regulators over the sale, as Nan Shan's four million policyholders account for a sixth of Taiwan's population.

Authorities blocked the first attempt amid concern over the buyers lack of financial management expertise.

The current buyer is led by the Ruentex Group, headed by chairman Samuel Yin, its property affiliate, and shoemaker Pou Chen.

Concept cars, global launches, indigenous brands and electric vehicles are all set to grab the attention of Chinese consumers during the Shanghai Auto Show.

Top automakers globally are focused on China, the world's largest auto market.

Car sales there rose by a third last year to 13.8 million units.

Volvo launched its new luxury car, the Concept Universe, on the first day of the show.

[Stefan Jacoby, CEO, Volvo]:
"This is just a glimpse where we see the future of Volvo cars. Again, this is a concept car, it's called Concept Universe. It is a glimpse in which language we want to go in respect of our design."

U.S. carmaker Ford is planning to increase its presence in China.

Ford's CEO in China says he expects the Chinese auto market to grow significantly in 2011.

[Joe Hinrichs, CEO, Ford China]:
"In China, we're expecting a five to ten percent growth this year. What we saw on the first quarter was consistent with that. For us, it's a sustainable level of growth, it's predictable and we think it's the right level of growth for the future."

Another U.S. automaker, General Motors, plans to introduce around 60 new and upgraded models in China over the next five years.

[Kevin Wale, President, GM China]:
"This is a big launch for us. It's a big segment of the market, and we think that we are bringing something unique to the market for China."

Carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen unveiled its new DS5 premium five-seater car on Monday, ahead of the Shanghai Auto Show.

Citroen hopes that the DS5 will lure younger customers in China.

The show runs through the 28th.

Shares of Nissan underperformed the broader market Monday, after the Japanese automaker said it would recall its Leaf electric vehicles.

Nissan was the biggest loser among Japan's top three carmakers, down as much as two percent, following the company's announcement that it would repair more than five thousand units of its Leaf electric vehicles in North America, Japan and Europe.

A total of about eight thousand of the cars have been built to date in Japan and the United States.

Nissan said a software glitch caused a number of the zero-emission vehicles to fail to re-start after the engine was turned off.

The automaker says it does not consider it a safety issue, as the vehicle operates properly while it is driven.

Nissan begins notifying Leaf drivers of the repair campaign this week, via a message sent to the vehicle's on-board communications system.

Nissan's high-stakes electric vehicle has been on the international market for around five months, making its debut in Japan and the U.S. last December.

Nearly two-thirds of Japan's companies have been negatively affected by the country's massive earthquake and tsunami.

Disrupted production and supply chains are the key problems, which also sent corporate confidence in Japan to a record low in April.

According to a Reuters poll of 400 large Japanese firms, business confidence fell back into negative territory for the first time this year.

The gloom was widespread, spreading through both manufacturing and services sectors.

Nearly 70 percent of the respondents say the single biggest problem for them is the lack of supply.

Manufacturers like auto firms have been forced to scale back output locally and globally.

Toyota, for example, is planning to stop production at five plants across Europe for several days in April and May due to a lack of supplies shipped from Japan.

Power shortages are also an issue for many firms.

Consumer technology giant Sony is considering a two-week summer shutdown of some company premises, as well as its own daylight savings time to conserve energy.