Nikkei in Japan Up 0.6%, Machinery Orders Up 4.2%; KDDI Gains

Nigel Thomas
09 Mar, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan increased after oil prices eased and indexes in Europe and U.S. closed higher in overnight trading. Machinery orders in January increased 4.2% on higher overseas demand. Dainippon Screen, Dai-Ichi Life and Yasakawa were added to Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

[R]4:40 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan increased after oil prices eased and indexes in Europe and U.S. closed higher in overnight trading. Machinery orders in January increased 4.2% on higher overseas demand. Dainippon Screen, Dai-Ichi Life and Yasakawa were added to Nikkei 225 Stock Average.[/R]

Stocks in Japan closed higher as oil prices declined and higher closing in overnight trading in Europe and U.S. and the yen edged slightly lower.

Investors in the final weeks of fiscal year closing were reluctant to add to their portfolios and focuses on high growth stocks like brokers.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.6% or 64.31 to 10,589.50 and the broader Topix index increased 0.6% to 944.29.

Trading on the main board on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was 1.9 billion shares lower than the last week average of 2.1 billion shares.

Machine orders in January rose more than expected. Core machinery orders in the month increased 4.2% on higher overseas demand.

Stock Movers

The changes in the Nikkei index prompted few stocks to gain. The following three stocks were added to the Nikkei 225 Stock Average according to its publisher.

Dainippon Screen Manufacturing increased 4.6% to 839 and Dai-Ichi Life increased 1.3% to 152,200 yen and Yasakawa added 2.6% to 994 yen.

Bridgestone gained 3.1% to 1,773 yen after Citigroup analyst recommended the stock. Yokohama Rubber increased 2.5% to 446 yen and Sumitomo Rubber Industries increased 3.2% to 912 yen.

Energy stocks declined after crude oil futures declined below $105 a barrel.

Inpex Corp declined 1.2% to 578,000 yen and trading companies like Marubeni and Itochu Sumitomo Mitsui declined.

Brokerage stocks gained in trading. Nomura Holdings Inc added 1.4% to 501 yen and Daiwa Securities Group Inc gained 1.2% to 416 yen.

Fanuc closed up 0.5% to 12,880 yen after better than expected machinery orders data in January.

KDDI increased 3% to 555,000 yen after it agreed to take 14.03% stake in Jasdaq-listed Space Shower, the music channel operator. KDDI will purchase the stake from Itochu Corp for 365.84 million yen and Space Shower increased 19% to 30,650 yen.

Vantec Corp soared 26% to 146,400 yen after Hitachi Transport System Ltd plans to acquire a majority stake in the company, according to the Nikkei business daily.

Hitachi Transport increased 2.7% to 1,311 yen.