Nikkei Jumps 1.4% on Canon, Fanuc and Daihatsu Earnings

Nigel Thomas
27 Apr, 2011
New York City

Tokyo stocks rebounded after Canon, Fanuc, Daihatsu and Kuraya reported higher earnings. Canon soared 7% after the company suggested parts supply issue is expected to be resolved in few months. Fanuc gained more than 3% after it guided higher profit in the current fiscal half.

[R]5:20 PM Tokyo – Tokyo stocks rebounded after Canon, Fanuc, Daihatsu and Kuraya reported higher earnings. Canon soared 7% after the company suggested parts supply issue is expected to be resolved in few months. Fanuc gained more than 3% after it guided higher profit in the current fiscal half.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo trading surged 1.4% a day after dropping more than 1%. However, the latest rise ahead of a week holiday was on a thin volume.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 133.15 or 1.4% to 9,691.84 and the Topix index added 6.23 or 0.8% to 839.87.

The trading volume increased to 1.75 billion shares, higher than the volume yesterday but below its weekly average of 2.1 billion shares in the last two weeks.

Stocks barely registered the latest Japan debt rating downward revision by the Standard & Poor as investors have increasingly come to believe rating companies lag the market perception.

The yen strengthened to 81.83 to a dollar and crude oil increased 6 cents to $112.27 a barrel.

Stock Movers

Canon Inc soared 7% to 3,740 yen in heavy volume after the camera and office equipment maker reported lower earnings in the last quarter and cut its full year outlook.

Fanuc, the industrial robots maker increased 3.6% to 13,260 yen after the company said its net profit soared three-fold to 120.16 billion yen in the year ended March and guided 21.6% increase in profit to 67.9 billion yen in the current fiscal half..

Daiwa Securities Group declined 4.4% to 344 yen after the second largest securities company reported a net loss of 33.13 billion yen compared to 2.80 billion yen in the quarter a year ago.

Daihatsu Motor soared 6.5% or 75 yen to 1,221 yen after it reported a surge in annual income to 52.6 billion yen, ahead of company forecast of an increase of 19%.

Kuraya soared 11% to 1,178 yen after the company reported full year net surged 76% to 28.7 billion yen.

Sony Corp declined 2% to 2,366 yen after the operator of Playstation network warned its customers that personal information including credit card data may have been stolen. The company shut down its network last week.