Nikkei Gains; Gazprom, Japan in LNG Plant Deal in Vladivostok

Chandrasekhar Atreya
18 Jan, 2011
New York City

Japanese stocks rallied to push the Topix index up for the first time in three days. Toyota Motor resumes production at 11 plants after heavy snowfall on Monday. Russia based OAO Gazprom appoints Japan to construct a LNG plant near Vladivostok.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Japanese stocks rallied to push the Topix index up for the first time in three days. Toyota Motor resumes production at 11 plants after heavy snowfall on Monday. Russia based OAO Gazprom appoints Japan to construct a LNG plant near Vladivostok.[/R]

Tokyo stocks gained pushing the Topix index up for the first time in three days as property developers and fiber makers advanced after brokerages boosted their target prices.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.15% or 16.12 to close at 10,518.98. The broader Topix climbed 0.3% to 931.58 with twice as many shares gaining as falling.

Zinc production at Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co, the country’s largest producer of the refined metal, may decline in the next fiscal year as the company plans to shut its main smelter for two months of maintenance.

The company said it will close its Hachinohe smelter from March 15 to May 15, leading to a production drop of about 10,000 tons to about 90,000 tons of output in the year starting April, 1, 2011, General Manager of the company’s zinc business said on Monday in an interview.

Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said today that the government should dissolve the lower house and then hold general elections before raising the consumption tax.

“The consumption tax should be raised depending on how fast the economy recovers and it is reasonable for the government to draft a plan to raise the tax and then dissolve the lower house to gain the public’s understanding,” he said following a cabinet meeting.

Toyota Motor Corp said today it resumed production at all of its 11 plants in Japan the same day after suspending production at 4 p.m. on Monday due to snowfall in the Chibu region including Aichi Prefecture.

Yoshinoya Holdings Co said today it bought back all the 132,858 shares from its largest shareholder Itochu Corp in off-floor trading for 14 billion yen and ending the capital tie-up between the two.

Only 68.8% of university graduates were able to get jobs by December before their graduation in March, down 4.3% from a year ago, to register the lowest level since 1996 when such data became available, according to a government survey.

Russian gas company OAO Gazprom said on Monday that it had signed a deal with Japan for construction of a liquefied natural gas plant near Vladivostok, in the east.

The deal was signed by Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom and Tetsuhiro Hosono, Director of Japan’s agency for natural resources and energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Under the deal, the two sides will undertake a joint front-end engineering design this year on construction of a plant near Vladivostok.

About 53% of global foreign direct investment was invested in developing countries in 2010, exceeding inflows into developed nations for the first time, a United Nations agency report showed Monday.

Inflows into developing nations reached $595.3 billion or about 49 trillion yen, up 8.6% from a year ago, according to preliminary report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development data released Monday. China and Hong Kong attracted $163.6 billion, close to the largest recipient of $186.1 billion by the United States.

A government program to subsidize purchases of energy-saving home appliances received 3.76 million applications in December, with 5.92 billion yen worth of reward points issued.

Stock Movers

Of the 225 members in the Nikkei index, 128 were up, 70 were down while 27 stayed unchanged.

Inpex Corp rallied 4.22% to 506,000 yen after oil prices climbed before dropping back to boost demand for the product.

Mitsubishi Estate Co gained 3.43% to 1,627 yen after Nomura Holdings raised it target prices for these shares along with those of Mitsui Fudosan Co.

Mitsui Fudosan also gained 1.45% to 1,754 yen.

Toray Industries Inc and Teijin Ltd, fiber makers of Japan, gained following price upgrades by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Toray gained 2.91% to 531 yen the and Teijin added 3.95% to 395 yen.