Computer Shipments in Japan Soar; Canon Lifts Outlook

Chandrasekhar Atreya
27 Oct, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo closed fractionally up after trading down in the afternoon session led by banks and brokerages. Canon Inc lifted its full year net income outlook by 2.1% on higher third quarter earnings. The shipments of Personal computer soared 31% and laptop surged 19% in the fiscal first half.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Stocks in Tokyo closed marginally higher after trading down in the afternoon session led by banks and brokerages. Canon Inc lifted its full year net income outlook by 2.1% on higher third quarter earnings. Personal computer shipment soared 31% and laptop shipments surged 19% in the fiscal first half.[/R]

Tokyo stocks fell the most in the afternoon session led by banks and brokerages on the worries that the U.S. Fed Reserve bond buying program may be smaller than expected. The stocks bounced back towards the close to end marginally higher.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.10% or 9.65 to close at 9,387.03. The broader Topix however dropped 0.18 to close at 817.76.

Of the 225 stocks in the Nikkei index, 84 gained, 122 decreased and 19 were unchanged.

Tokyo Stock Exchange will seek its own alliances if a planned merger of the Singapore and Sydney Stock Exchanges takes place, the bourse’s head said in a report on Wednesday.

Atsushi Saito, CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, told the Financial Times that if SGX’s merger with ASX goes through, it would not be a good story for Tokyo’s exchange.

Domestic shipments of personal computers rose 23.2% in September from a year ago to 1.02 million units, for the 13th monthly rise in a row, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said on Tuesday. These dispatches improved on the back of improved corporate earnings.

Shipments of desktop PCs grew 31.5% to 359,000 units and those of laptops climbed 19.2% to 664,000 units. For the first half of the year to September, PC shipments totaled 4.97 million units, up 22.9% and surpassing the pre-crisis level seen in the first half of 2008.

The Japanese government began a fresh round of budget screening Wednesday as part of the governmental efforts to make the country’s public spending more transparent and more efficient.

Scrapping of the lunch break would hurt trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, President of the exchange Atushi Saito told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Trading is normally concentrated at the start and end of each morning and afternoon sessions, when the ‘itayose’ method of matching buy and sell orders is used. If the lunch break were to be eliminated, there would be only two buying and selling periods instead of the four now, Saito explained.

Nissan Motor Co said Tuesday it received 30% to 35% fewer orders for new cars in Japan in September from a year ago after the government ended it subsidy program in September.

“The drop in orders was within the expected range but it looks tougher than the figure suggests because orders have decreased to roughly 50% when compared with the level in July-August period,” Takao Katagiri Senior Vice President in charge of marketing and sales in Japan told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The retail prices of cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and Japanese leeks tracked by the Agricultural Ministry fell across the board for the first time since June, according to data released Tuesday.

The prices of five vegetables for the week ending October 22 after rising continuously since the week ending in June 25, when they fell last together. While lettuce prices dropped 31% from the previous week, prices of the other vegetables dropped by 10%.

Domestic shipment of mobile phones rose 12.3% in the six month period ended September, from a year ago, to 19.13 million, according to data compiled by MM Research Institute and reported on Tuesday.

These figures were led by strong sales of smartphones and the full-year figure is expected to reach 37.3 million, topping the figures for the past two years, the institute predicts.

Japan’s rice imports may surge 11 times from the current level of 770,000 tons per year, should it remove the tariff of 341 yen per kilogram on overseas suppliers under a free-trade agreement proposed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a report Wednesday.

Canon Inc, the world’s largest camera maker, raised its full year net income forecast by 2.1% after posting a better than expected net in the third quarter.

The company expects to post a profit of 245 billion yen as compared to the previous estimate of 240 billion yen, Canon said in a statement in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation set aside $4 billion to invest in renewable energy and carbon projects in the coming two years through to 2013 to help the country offset it emissions, an official of the bank said.

The credit for the projects would be generated after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, Executive Director Fumio Hoshi said in an interview after attending the Carbon Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore on Wednesday.

Gainers & Losers

Sumitomo Heavy Industries led gainers in the Nikkei with a rally of 5.87% to 469 yen followed by Fuji Heavy Industries 5.31% to 555 yen, Hino Motors Ltd 5.1% to 412 yen, Isuzu Motors 4.19% to 323 yen, Taiyo Yuden Co 4.12% to 1,036 yen and Kao Corp 3.54% to 2,075 yen.

Mitsui Chemicals led decliners in the index with a drop of 6.69% to 237 yen followed by Fujikura Ltd 3.7% to 390 yen, Nisshin Steel 3.27% t0 148 yen, Shinsei Bank Ltd 3.08% to 63 yen, Hitachi Construction 3.05% to 1,749 yen and Nitto Boseki Ltd 2.96% to 197 yen.