Nikkei in Japan Up 0.9%, Panasonic Completes $6 Billion Bond Offering

Nigel Thomas
03 Mar, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan closed higher on positive U.S. economic data. Panasonic completed the sale of $6 billion bond offering, the largest offering from a non-financial Japanese company. Exporters and automakers led the gainers in Tokyo trading.

[R]5:00 Tokyo – Stocks in Japan closed higher on positive U.S. economic data. Panasonic completed the sale of $6 billion bond offering, the largest offering from a non-financial Japanese company. Exporters and automakers led the gainers in Tokyo trading.
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Investors in Japan bid up stocks after U.S. private sector added more jobs in February offsetting higher oil prices. U.S. Fed also indicated that economic activity has picked up in 2011.

U.S. lawmakers approved a temporary budget and postponed the government shutdown for two more weeks but lawmakers are at odds to approve government spending till September 30.

U.S. companies added 217,000 jobs in February after the revised increase of 189,000 in January, according to the latest survey from ADP Employer Services.

However, U.S. mortgage applications dropped 6.5% in the month indicating difficult housing market conditions.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.9% or 93.64 to 10,586.02 and Topix index gained 0.6% to 948.69. Trading volume on the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange declined to 1.9 billion shares, lower than 2.4 billion average daily volume last week.

The yen edged up 81.75 to a dollar and crude oil inched higher in Asian trading to rise to $102.15 a barrel but closed at the session’s low to $101.54 after Reuters reported that Muammar Gaddafi and the president of the Arab League agreed to a peace plan.

Overseas investors lowered Japan stock exposure by 118.5 billion yen last week after adding to holdings for 16-weeks in a row.

Panasonic Corp completed the sale of 500 billion yen or $6.1 billion of bonds. The bonds were offered in three tranches according to Dow Jones Newswire.

The three tranche consisted of 150 billion yen of two-year bonds, 200 billion yen of five-year bonds and 150 billion yen of seven-year bonds.

Stock Movers

Advantest Corp increased 1.5% to 1,673 yen on a report that the company developed next generation of semiconductor chip testing equipment. The news was reported in Nikkei business daily.

Inpex Corp closed flat at 573,000 yen and the largest oil explorer in Japan has gained 21% in the year.

Industrials and automakers closed higher. Honda Motor gained 0.9% to 3,550 yen and Hitachi added 1% to 497 yen.

Itochu Corp declined 1.3% to 840 yen and the company agreed to acquire U.S. based auto-repair chain Kwik-Fit Group from PAI Partners based in France, according to Bloomberg News.

Fast Retailing decline d 1.1% to 12,371 yen after it reported weaker than expected February same-store sales. The sales declined 5%.

Softbank increased 3.4% to 110 yen after its excusive U.S. partner Apple unveiled second generation of iPad.

Toyota Motor Corp declined 2.9% to 3,747 yen and China sales in February increased 97% to 44,000 according to a news headline from China Business Indepth.