Nikkei Drops to 5-month Low; Record High Yen

Nigel Thomas
22 Aug, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan continued to drift lower on record high yen. The Nikkei declined to the level last seen on March 15 and the broader Topix index fell to a 2-year low. Automakers, electronics exporters and banks were among the leading decliners.

[R]6:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan continued to drift lower on record high yen. The Nikkei declined to the level last seen on March 15 and the broader Topix index fell to a 2-year low. Automakers, electronics exporters and banks were among the leading decliners.[/R]

Stocks in Japan declined for the third week in a row on the worries that rising yen, weakening economic growth in the U.S. and a growing debt problem in the Europe will lower the corporate earnings.

The Topix index declined to a 2-year low and the Nikkei index dropped near the level last seen on March 15.

Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 1% to 8,628.12 and the Topix index decreased 1.2% to 742.84.

Trading in Tokyo declined to 1.4 billion shares from the last week’s average of 2.4 billion.

The yen traded in a tight range and close at a record low of 76.24 against one dollar.

Stock Movers

The strong yen dragged the consumer electronics maker lower for the third week in a row.

Toshiba Corp declined 0.6% to 309 yen and Hitachi dropped 1.8% to 386 yen. Minebea Co Ltd dropped nearly 2% to 294 yen and Shinko Electric Industries declined 1.8% to 496 yen. TDK fell 0.3% to 3,240 yen.

Fast Retailing increased 0.3% to 14,700 yen and Asahi Glass Company eased 1.8% to 719 yen

Advantest declined 3.8% to 979 yen and Tokyo Electron decreased to 0.4% to 3,385 yen.

Toyota declined 2.4% to 2,700 yen, Honda Motor Co. fell 2.5% to 2,342 and Nissan Motor Co Ltd decreased 4.1% to 626 yen.

Canon Inc increased 0.9% to 3,495 yen and Nikon Inc declined 0.9% to 1,596 yen.

Resort Trust increased 2.4% to 1,242 yen on positive comments from a broker and Inaba Seisakusho added 3.7% to 842 yen after the steel storage maker lifted its annual earnings outlook to 470 million yen from 60 million yen a year ago.