Japan Extends Rally; Fast Retailing Up

Nigel Thomas
05 Dec, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan extended gains of the last week. Investors bid up export sensitive stocks on the hopes that the European leaders will have a plan to ready ahead of the summit later in the week. Fast Retailing Co jumped 4.5% after November same store sales declined 1% from a year ago.

[R]7:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan extended gains of the last week. Investors bid up export sensitive stocks on the hopes that the European leaders will have a plan to ready ahead of the summit later in the week. Fast Retailing Co jumped 4.5% after November same store sales declined 1% from a year ago.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo trading built on the gains of the last week and awaited market reaction to the latest austerity measures announced by Italy.

Market remained focus on the developments in the euro zone in the absence of local and region economic news. Leaders of France and Germany are set to meet on Monday to agree on the proposal to deepen the fiscal integration in Europe and work on leveraging the rescue fund that will buy bonds of Spain and Italy.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.6% to 8,695.98 and the broader Topix index added 0.6% to 748.61.

Trading volume on the main board of Tokyo Stock Exchange declined to 1.43 billion shares from 1.57 billion shares on Friday and decliners led the advancers.

Italy proposed to increase taxes and extend the retirement age and levy property tax that collectively may raise as much as 12 billion euros and cut spending by another 20 billion euros. The combined measures are expected to balance the budget in the next fiscal year.

Stock Movers

Toyota Motor increased 69 yen to 2,663 yen and Honda Motor Co. fell 19 yen to 2,460 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd jumped 1 yen to 710 yen.

Sony Corp increased 2 yen to 1,397 yen, Panasonic Corp fell 6 yen at 727 yen and Canon Inc rose 10 yen at to 3,445 yen. Nintendo Co. Ltd added 10 yen to 11,250 yen.

Olympus Corp increased 24 yen to 1,091 yen as investors await a report by an independent panel that may show that the company hid $1.7 billion of losses but did not divert funds to organized criminal enterprises.

Fanuc Ltd decreased 140 yen to 13,020 yen and Kyocera closed up 30 yen at 6,870 yen. Nikon Corp added 42 yen to 1,795 yen.

Elpida Memory Inc rose 4% or 16 yen to 407 yen and Ulvac Inc soared 30 yen to 1,116 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd fell 1 yen to 268 yen, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd increased 1 yen to 139 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. closed up 2 yen at 183 yen.

Daiichi Sankyo Ltd gained 3.3% to 1,466 yen.

Fast Retailing Co. soared 4.5% to 13,0500 yen after the operator of retail chain Uniqlo said domestic same store sales decreased 1% in November after falling 4% in October.

Dai-ichi Life increased 1,100 yen to 86,300 yen.

Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdings, Inc closed unchanged at 1,541 yen and NKSJ Holdings Inc rose 7 yen to 1,581 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed up 7 yen at 345 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group increased 48 yen to 2,212 yen.

Komatsu Ltd decreased 14 yen to 2,032 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co decreased 9 yen to 1,403 yen.

Softbank Corp rose 37 yen to 2,442 yen, KDDI dropped 1% to 505,000 yen and NTT DoCoMo, Inc gained 0.3% to 139,300 yen.