Nikkei Drop of 0.5% Extends March Loss to 8.2%

Nigel Thomas
31 Mar, 2011
New York City

Japan

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo – Japan’s benchmark index declined 0.5% on the last trading day of the quarter and declined 8.2% in March and dropped 5% in the quarter. Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma increased 4.4% after it revised its full-year earnings outlook. The debt ridden and operator of troubled nuclear power plant Tepco may get a loan of 1.9 trillion yen.[/R]

Stocks rebounded on the last day of financial year close as fund managers rebalanced holdings.

Stocks in construction, steel and metals industry increased on the expected hike in demand after Japan government said it may spend $120 billion to rebuild earthquake stricken areas.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 46.31 or 0.5% to 9.755.10 and the broader Topix index added 3.29 or 0.4% to 869.38.

Trading volume declined to 2.7 billion shares, sharply lower than the 3 billion average volume in the last two weeks on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

For the month the benchmark Nikkei index lost 8.2% and in the quarter the index fell 5%.

Stock Movers

Acrodea Inc declined 2.6% to 37,000 yen after mobile software developer said it plans to raise 1 billion yen through the sale of equity warrants to Australia based Macquarie Bank Ltd.

Advantest increased 3.8% to 1,498 yen and Fanuc increased 1.5% to 12,590 yen.

Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co increase 4.4% to 762 yen after the drugmaker lifted its full-year outlook to 15 billion yen.

Shimamura Co. increased 4.2% to 7,230 yen after the income for the fiscal year increased 8.25 to 23.5 billion yen.

Tokyo Electric Power closed flat at 466 yen but opened higher after a large order at the opening lifted the stock.

However, the premium eased in the session as no new demand was seen in trading. Kyodo News reported that the utility is expected to receive 1.9 trillion yen in loans but the report did not say from where. The company has currently $90 billion in debt.

Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata at a press conference said he prefers the company to stay private and not nationalized.

Nissan Motor increased 1% to 378 yen and the automaker resumed trading after it said in a statement with the Tokyo Stock Exchange that it is not planning to form a holding company with France based Renault.

Kurita Water Industries Ltd increased 3.5% to 2,469 yen and the synthetic cloth maker may supply cloth to cover nuclear reactors at Fukushima power plants to prevent the spread of radiation.

Optical glass makers Hoya Corp decreased 0.5% to 1,898 yen after the company halted some of its production after Tokyo area hit with rolling power cuts. Ohara Inc fell 0.9% to 946 yen after the company confirmed that some customers may see a delay in filling orders.