Nikkei in Tokyo Rebonds 1.8% on Chimamkers Rally

Nigel Thomas
20 Apr, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo soared after Intel reported better than expected earnings. Chipmakers soared. The broader indexes advanced and Nikkei gained 1.8%. Commodities linked stocks gained after crude oil, gold and silver closed higher.

[R]6:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo soared after Intel reported better than expected earnings. Chipmakers soared. The broader indexes advanced and Nikkei gained 1.8%. Commodities linked stocks gained after crude oil, gold and silver closed higher.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo advanced after Intel announced sharply higher earnings and guided better than expected earnings. The news lifted stocks of chipmakers and shifted the market focus away from the supply chain worries linked to the triple disasters.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 1.8% or 165.79 and broader Topix index gained 1.2% to 837.17.

The yen traded in a tight range between 82.50 and 83.01 to a dollar and crude oil in Asian trading gained $1.50 to $109.80 a barrel.

Trading volume declined to 1.8 billion shares from the weekly average of 2.1 billion shares.

Stock Movers

Chipmakers increased after Intel Corp reported quarterly revenues ahead of expectations and guided higher earnings. Intel sells as much as 10% of its products to Japan based customers.

Advantest increased 3.4% to 1,452 yen and Tokyo Electron added 4.1% to 5,575 yen. Ibiden soared 6% to 2,562 yen. Shinko Electric Industries soared 7% to 841 yen.

Daito Trust Construct Co. declined 3% to 6,200 yen after the company estimated with full-year earnings of 43.1 billion yen.

Hitachi Ltd increased more than 3% to 400 yen after the company will participate in a test in southwest England for distributing power from alternative sources on a power grid. Nikkei newspaper first reported the news.

Hogya Medical Co. dropped 3% to 3,255 yen after it reported full-year net dropped 9.5% to 4.45 billion yen. The company had forecasted net decline of 5.7% in the period.

Sony Ericsson reported weaker than expected sales in the latest quarter. Sales suffered on the lack of supply of displays and batteries and electronics parts.

Toshiba Corp increased 3.7% to 416 yen after the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported that Apple Inc has selected the company for its development of smart phones displays.

Itoham Foods Inc increased 3% to 312 yen after the company said 289 employees applied for early retirement, exceeding the company target of 150. The company also estimated one time charge of 3 billion yen in the fiscal year ending in March 2011.