Foreign Investors Increase Japan Bond Holdings

Chandrasekhar Atreya
29 Dec, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo gained on earnings outlook. Holdings of Japanese government bonds by overseas investors surged 6% to 57.5 trillion yen in the September quarter. Purchase of television sets surges 255% in November ahead of expiry of government incentives.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Stocks in Tokyo gained on earnings outlook. Holdings of Japanese government bonds by overseas investors surged 6% to 57.5 trillion yen in the September quarter. Purchase of television sets surges 255% in November ahead of expiry of government incentives.[/R]

Tokyo stocks rose pushing the benchmark index higher and erasing the broader Topix Index’s year-to-date loss on better earnings outlook.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.50% or 51.91 to close at 10,344.54 and the broader Topix rose 0.6% to 908.01 with all the 33 industry groups in this index registering an increase.

The yen closed at 82.09 yen to a dollar and 107.92 to a euro in Tokyo today.

Japanese Premier Naoto Kan told cabinet members Tuesday that he is planning to urge international community to back the idea of a per-capita target for carbon dioxide emissions. The cabinet decided to halt the consideration of domestic emissions trading program, which had been scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2013.

Carbon Dioxide emissions in 2008 were 4.4 tons per capita on average worldwide and that in Japan were 9 tons per capita according to Kan. He proposed to lower the global per capita emissions to 2.2 tons by 2050.

The Uruguayan government decided to switch the Japanese standards for its terrestrial digital television broadcasts, the Ministry of Communications said on Tuesday. Uruguay, the eleventh nation in addition to Japan has switched to these standards.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica followed neighboring countries and ordered the switch from European standards as the Japanese standard offered the ability to simultaneously transmit high-definition and cellular phone TV services.

Overseas investors increased their portfolios of Japanese government bonds for the first time in eight quarters in the quarter ended September 30.

Bond holdings surged 6.2% in the quarter to September from a year ago to 57.5 trillion yen, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Japan.

Purchases of television sets in Japan surged in November to 7.8 units, up 2.2 units per 100 households ahead of the expiry of the eco-point incentive program, according to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Tuesday.

The November data represents a jump of nearly 255% from a year ago period indicating that about one in every 13 households bought a TV, the highest since the introduction of eco-point program.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s index tracking the real estate investment trusts surged 26.5% since the end of 2009 to Monday nearing the record gain in 2004.

REITs have been on the rise since the asset purchase program announced on October 5 by the Bank of Japan. The REIT index has surged 19.5% since October 4.

Stock Movers

Citizen Holdings Co, the watch maker added 1.07% to 568 yen after Nikkei News said that the company earnings are expected to rise.

Hitachi Ltd advanced 2.41% to 425 yen after the Sankei newspaper said the company is likely to win rail cars orders in UK.

Inpex Corp closed 0.31% higher at 483,500 yen tracking the rise in crude oil price in New York trading of 0.5% to $91.46.

Aeon Credit Service Co after reporting a nine-month profit surged 4.55% to 1,148 yen.