Tokyo Stocks Struggle, Yen Declines; IHI, Iwatani Up

Nigel Thomas
04 Apr, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan struggled to advance after the government said it may take a month before the radiation leak is contained. Supply chain and earnings worries dampened market sentiment. Weaker yen lifted exporters. Automakers and electronics makers closed mixed.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan struggled to advance after the government said it may take a month before the radiation leak is contained. Supply chain and earnings worries dampened market sentiment. Weaker yen lifted exporters. Automakers and electronics makers closed mixed.[/R]

Stocks in Japan struggled to advance after the release of supplemental survey from the Bank of Japan and the government said it may take a month before the radiation leak is contained at the troubled nuclear power plant.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 10.50 or 0.1% to 9,718.99 and the broader Topix index declined 2.87 or 0.3% to 859.75.

Trading volume in the session at 2.5 billion shares was near its average last week.

The yen traded above 84 but near close settled at 83.9908 to a dollar.

The supplemental survey released by the Bank of Japan taken after the triple disaster on March 11 indicated that business confidence declined about the business conditions in the next three months.

Stock Movers

IHI Corp soared 4% to 210 yen after the Nikkei business daily said company and Sweden based Atlas Copco are expected to sign a contract to market industrial compressors.

Tokyo Electric Power declined 1.5% to 442 yen, Tohoku Electric Power declined 1.6% to 1,331 yen and Chubu Electric Power dropped 1.5% to 1,768 yen.

Exporters were generally higher on the weaker yen. Fanuc added 1.3% to 12,510 yen and Canon Inc closed unchanged at 3,650 yen but Sony Corp declined 1.2% to 2,640 yen on the speculation that the company may face parts supplies shortage.

Ricoh Company Ltd declined 1.5% to 949 yen and Panasonic Corp fell 0.3% to 1,055 yen on the worries that part supplies shortage will affect production delays.

Iwatani soared as much as 8% to 297 yen after the Nikkei reported that natural gas distributor is running at a full capacity to meet the residential use demand after the March 11 earthquake.

Toyota Motor Corp decreased 0.5% or 15 yen to 3,340 yen, Honda Motor declined 1.3% to 3,010 yen and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd increased 0.3% to 731 yen.

Mitusi & Co. Ltd increased 0.9% to 1,514 yen and Marubeni Corp declined 0.5% to 610 yen and Itochu Corp increased 0.5% to 881 yen.