Nikkei Average Falls 1.7% in the Week

123jump.com Staff
23 Apr, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Japan closed lower and fell the most in three weeks at the close of the week. Nissan Motor plans to increase manufacturing capacity by nearly 70% in China by 2012. Rating agency Fitch reaffirmed Japan sovereign debt rating but noted that creditworthiness of the nation is on the decline.

R]8:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Stocks in Japan closed lower and fell the most in three weeks at the close of the week. Nissan Motor plans to increase manufacturing capacity by nearly 70% in China by 2012. Rating agency Fitch reaffirmed Japan sovereign debt rating but noted that creditworthiness of the nation is on the decline.[/R]

The benchmark index in Tokyo trading closed lower and for the week fell the most in three weeks. The government bonds gained for the second week in the row. For the week the index fell 1.7%.

Japan’s debt burden is expected to keep rising in the absence of a sustained economic recovery according to a Fitch Rating report.

Astellas Pharma, Inc extended it unsolicited offer of $3.5 billion for OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc a second time. The offer will close on May 17. The cancer drug Tarceva generates 84% of revenue for OSI.

According to Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn the company aims to increase its capacity in China to 900,000 vehicles a year by the year 2012.

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 34.63 8.09 or 0.32% to 10,914.46 and of the stocks in Nikkei 225 Stock Average, 71 increased, 132 declined and 22 was unchanged.

The yield on 10-year bonds closed at 1.315%.

Nikkei Movers

Shinsei Bank, Limited led the decliners in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a loss of 4.6% followed by JTEKT Corporation 3.7%, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd 3.2%, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation 2.4% and Ebara Corporation 2.4%.

Yahoo Japan Corporation led gainers in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a rise of 4.0% followed by Takashimaya Company, Limited 3.6%, Isuzu Motors Ltd 3.2% and Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd 2.8%.

Other Movers

CyberAgent, Inc added 1.8% to 170,100.00 yen. The online advertising company announced that it has raised its consolidated full-year outlook for revenue from 85,000 million yen to 94,000 million yen.

Daiichi Sankyo Co declined 1.9% to 1,634.00 yen.

KDDI Corp declined 0.1% to 459,500 yen.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd rose 1.1% to 3,215.00 yen after the automaker''s operating profit jumped 90% to 360 billion yen for fiscal 2009.

Honda Motor Co plans to sell its Insight and CRZ Hybrid models in China by 2012, said the company CEO Takanobu Ito at the Beijing Auto Show. The Crosstour luxury crossover wagon will be built in China at Honda’s joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.

NTT DoCoMo, Inc dropped 1.3% to 149,100.00 yen after the cell phone carrier announced new mobile projector for cell phones.

Softbank Corp rose 0.3% to 2,104.00 yen.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited the drugmaker lost 1.2% to 3,960.00 yen.

Earnings in Review

KDDI Corporation, the mobile-phone operator the maker of computer memory chips said 2009 revenues fell 4% to ¥2.61 trillion from ¥2.72 trillion a year ago. Net profit for the year fell 4.4% to ¥212.8 billion compared to net profit of ¥222.7 billion a year ago.

KDDI Corporaton, in the last one year traded as high as ¥575,000.00 in September 2009 and as low as ¥433,000.00 in April 2009. Based on the yesterday’s closing price of ¥459,500.00 the company has market cap of ¥2.05 trillion.