Japan Stocks Flat; Taiheiyo Cement Plunges 14%

Nigel Thomas
31 Aug, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged up a fraction and extended rally for the fifth day in a row. Automakers, banks and trading companies led the advancers. The Yen traded near its 25-year high. Taiheiyo Cement plunged 14% after it proposed to a stock offering.

[R]6:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan edged up a fraction and extended rally for the fifth day in a row. Automakers, banks and trading companies led the advancers. The Yen traded near its 25-year high. Taiheiyo Cement plunged 14% after it proposed to a stock offering.[/R]

The benchmark index in Tokyo edged higher for the fifth day in a row following gains in the Asian markets and a rise in the U.S.

The yen edged higher to 76.67 from 76.90.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 1.30 to 8,955.20 and the broader Topix index gained 0.4% to 770.60. For the month, the Nikkei index fell 8.9% and the Topix declined 8.4%.

Trading volume on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined to 1.2 billion from the week’s average of 2.1 billion shares.

Stock Movers

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group added 1.1% to 344 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group increased 0.9% to 2,255 yen. Mizuho Financial Group inched up 1.8% to 116 yen.

Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co. decreased 400 yen to 88,700 yen.

Energy linked companies traded higher after crude oil in New York gained. Inpex Corp increased 1.6% to 515,000 yen and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co fell 20 yen to 3,150 yen.

Toyota Motor increased 13 yen to 2,734 yen and Honda Motor Co. gained 36 yen to 2,474 yen and Nissan Motor added 18 yen 697 yen.

Sony Corp fell 1.8% to 1,665 yen, Hitachi Ltd increased 0.5% to 413 yen and Toshiba Corp fell 2.4% to 331 yen.

Nikon Inc decreased 24 yen to 1,676 yen. Canon Inc gained 20 yen to 3,595 yen.

JGC Corp fell 3% to 2,157 yen a day after the engineering firm won a $400 million order to construct oil refining plant in Algeria.

Construction equipment makers liked to China closed higher. Komatsu extended gains for the second day by 1% to 2,025 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery advanced 0.4% to 1,425 yen.

Taiheiyo Cement dropped 14% to 135.5 yen after the cement maker planned to raise up to 37.5 billion yen in stock offering according to a regulatory filing.

Renown, the apparel maker soared 27% to 199 yen after Itochu Corp agreed to take a state of 30% in Shandong Ruyi Group for 15 billion yen. The company will also hold indirectly in Renown 12%.

Itochu added 3% to 818 yen.

Aozora Bank dropped 7% to 196 yen on the worries that the merger with Australian and New Zealand Banking Group may not happen.