Stocks in Tokyo Retreat; Mizuho Takes 2% Stake in BlackRock

Marcus Jacob
12 Nov, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo declined after rising for two days and banks declined. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial revised annual earnings outlook. Mizuho also agreed to take 2% stake in the U.S. based asset manager BlackRock.

[R]4:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo declined after rising for two days and banks declined. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial and Mizuho Financial revised annual earnings outlook. Mizuho also agreed to take 2% stake in the U.s. based asset manager BlackRock.[/R]

Stocks in Japan fell after rising for two days in a row. As G20 meeting drew to a close the prospect of clear agreement among nations to manage global flow imbalances.

Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 1.4% to 9,724.81 and the broader Topix index dropped 1.1% to 846.98.

The yen strengthened against the euro to 111.95 and 81.81 to a dollar.

Banks declined after investors recalibrated their expectations about lower capital requirements for domestic banks. The news was first reported by 123jump.com yesterday.

Stock Movers

Banks declined. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc declined 1.8% to 392 yen and Mizuho Financial Group Inc declined 2.2% to 128 yen and Sumitomo Financial Group Inc fell 1.8% to 2,510 yen.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc said fiscal half net more than tripled to 417.5 billion yen from 127.5 billion yen from a year ago period, according to a statement with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The bank also lifted its full-year net outlook 59% to 540 billion yen.

Mizuho Financial lifted its full year net income increased to 500 billion yen from the previous estimate to 430 billion yen.

The bank also said in its statement it agreed to buy 2% stake in BlackRock Inc for $500 million. Mizuho noted that it will acquire 3.07 million shares of which 2.45 million will be purchased from Bank of America and the rest from the offering managed by the company.

Exporters declined as the yen hovered near highs and worries in the China growth. Fanuc Ltd declined 3% to 12,020 yen and Komatsu Ltd dropped 2.3%. Canon Inc dropped 1.9%.

Disco Corp, the chip equipment maker dropped 14% to 4,512 yen after the lowered the annual dividend to 32 yen from 40 yen. The company also lowered its full year net income estimate to 9.5 billion yen, 25% lower than the previous estimate.

GS Yuasa Corp dropped 4.4% to 550 yen after the battery maker lowered the fiscal 2012 sales to be between 330 billion yen and 350 billion yen.

Nissan Motor Co. declined 2.2% to 774 yen after the second largest automaker in Japan recalled 605,000 vehicles in several countries including the U.S.

Trend Micro Inc fell 2.6% to 2,429 after the security software reported fiscal first half net declined 32% to 9.55 billion yen. The company also guided full-year earnings to decline 26% to 13 billion yen.