Nikkei Rebounds After 3-day Decline; Nintendo Surges 8%

Nigel Thomas
23 Aug, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan and Asia gained after three days of decline. The yen declined from its record high but hovered near the highs. Nintendo soared on the speculation of a new product release.

[R]6:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan and Asia gained after three days of decline. The yen declined from its record high but hovered near the highs. Nintendo soared on the speculation of a new product release.[/R]

Stocks in Japan edged higher as the yen edged lower and commodities turned higher. Export led electronics makers and trading companies gained. Nintendo soared on the speculation of a new game console release next year.

Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 1.2% to 8,733.01 and the Topix index gained 1% to 750.39.

Trading in Tokyo increased to 2.1 billion shares from the last week’s average of 1.7 billion.

The yen traded in a tight range and close higher to 76.77 against one dollar.

Stock Movers

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

Toshiba Corp increased 10 yen to 319 yen and Hitachi added 2.3% to 395 yen and TDK added 65 yen or 2% to 3,305 yen.

Toshiba is planning to increase industrial motors to five times by 2015 according to a report in Nikkei business newspaper.

Canon Inc increased 3% or 105 yen to 3,600 yen and Nikon Inc added 4.2% or 66 yen to 1,662 yen.

Fast Retailing decreased 0.2% to 14,670 yen and Asahi Glass Company added 1.7% to 731 yen.

Advantest added 3.2% to 1,010 yen and Tokyo Electron Ltd increased 2.4% or 80 yen to 3,465 yen.

Toyota Motor added 2.4% to 2,763 yen, Honda Motor Co. added 1% to 2,365 and Nissan Motor Co Ltd increased 3.1% to 645 yen.

Nintendo soared 8.4% to 13,100 yen on the speculation that the company is developing joy stick for the 3DS game console version scheduled to be released next year and has asked game developers for new versions. The news was first reported by the France based technology website 01net.

Chubu Electric Power Co increased 1.9% to 1,487 yen and Japan Bank for International Cooperation is expected to provide 100 billion yen or $1.3 billion loan of low interest to fund the purchase of natural gas fuel.