Nikkei in Tokyo Soars 1.5%; Canon Up 6%, Ricoh to Cut 10,000 Staff

Nigel Thomas
26 May, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo advanced tracking the gains in the U.S. markets in overnight trading. Canon Inc soared after it proposed to buy back 1.2% of its shares. Ricoh plans to eliminate 10,000 staff in the next three years.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo advanced tracking the gains in the U.S. markets in overnight trading. Canon Inc soared after it proposed to buy back 1.2% of its shares. Ricoh plans to eliminate 10,000 staff in the next three years.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo strengthened after U.S. indexes rebounded after a 3-day selloff in overnight trading and commodities gained.

Crude oil declined but metals prices rose. Asian markets generally closed higher with South Korea leading the region with a rise of 2.3% an Sydney soared 1.7%.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 1.5% to 9,562.05 and the broader Topix index gained 1.1% to 827.08. In trading only 1.6 billion shares changed hands, below the last week average of 1.78 billion shares.

The yen traded near 82.09 to a dollar and at 116.05 to one euro from 114.85.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan at a gathering of Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development said nearly 60% of affected operations have resumed after the earthquake.

He also said that Japan aims to increase its share of green energy production to 20% in the early 2020s. He also stressed that Japan aims to cut the cost of solar power generation by one third of its current price by 2020 and to a sixth by 2030.

Stock Movers

Commodities and resources linked stocks led the gainers. Inpex Corp increased 3.1% to 565,000 yen and Japan Petroleum Exploration increased 4.9% to 3,725 yen. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co added 2% to 1,294 yen.

Canon Inc soared 5.8% to 3,850 yen after the camera and office equipment maker said it plans to buyback as much as 1.2% of its total share up to 50 billion yen.

Ricoh Co increased 4.1% to 885 yen after the office equipment maker said it plans to eliminate as much as 9% or 10,000 of its staff in the next three years.

Automakers rose on the expectations that supply chain worries are easing and Toyota is expected to reach its 90% pre-quake production target as early as next month.

Toyota Motor increased 1.2% to 3,355 yen and Mazda Motor Corp soared 6.9% to 201 yen after two brokers issued positive comments.

Softbank increased 3.3% to 3,065 yen after the U.S. online game maker Zynga is expected to go public sooner than expected. Softbank has invested $150 million in a joint venture with the game developer.