Japan Stocks Rebound in Weak Trading; Utilities Decline

Nigel Thomas
13 Apr, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan rebounded but on a weak volume. Electric utilities declined on the worries that the industry may be asked to contribute for the losses linked to the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant. J. Front Retailing dropped 5% after the department store operator indicated weak outlook.

[R]4:45 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan rebounded but on a weak volume. Electric utilities declined on the worries that the industry may be asked to contribute for the losses linked to the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. J. Front Retailing Co. dropped 5% after the department store operator indicated weak outlook.[/R]

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.9% or 85.92 to 9,641.18 and the broader Topix added 0.7% to 844.59.

Trading volume declined to 2.1 billion shares from the last week’s average volume of 2.6 billion shares.

In Tuesday’s trading, the Bank of Japan purchased 18.4 billion yen in exchange traded funds to support the market on the day of the decline. On Tuesday, the benchmark index fell 1.7%.

Stock Movers

Tokyo Electric Power increased 12% to 502 yen after the Yomiuri newspaper reported that the largest utility’s liability may be capped to $24 billion and other losses stemming from the troubled nuclear power plant may be shared by the industry.

Chubu Electric Power declined 3% to 1,860 yen and Kansai Electric dropped 4.1% to 1,779 yen. Kyushu Electric Power Co. dropped 3.6% to 1,575 yen.

J. Front Retailing Co. dropped 5% to 326 yen after the company reported lower than expected earnings and estimated 49% fall in earnings in the current year.

Toyota Motor gained 1.4% to 3,285 yen, Honda Motor increased 3.3% to 2,957 yen and Nissan Motor added 2.9% to 716 yen.

Renesas Electronics gained 7.6% to 698 yen after Nikkei newspaper reported that the automotive chip maker may start production in June at an earthquake damaged plant one month ahead of schedule.

Trading companies declined after metal and oil prices fell in London and New York trading. The future price of May deliver of crude declined 3.3% to $106.25 a barrel in New York.

Inpex Corp declined 1.6% to 610,000 yen and Japex dropped 2% to 3,930 yen.

Mitsui & Company declined 1.4% to 1,451 yen and Mitsubishi Corp edged lower 0.4% to 2,241 yen.

Tokyo Disneyland will reopen on Friday according to its parent company Oriental Land Co. Yesterday, the company said the park will operate short hours and will carry out its scheduled price increase to 6,200 yen from 5,800 yen on April 23, its first price increase in four and a half year.

Analysts estimate that company lost 1 billion yen in revenues for each day of closure and will struggle to attract the same number of customers on the short operating hours.