Tokyo Stocks Struggle Near 1-month High; Tepco Drops 11%

Nigel Thomas
08 Dec, 2011
New York City

The Nikkei index in Japan declined ahead of the European summit. Softbank led the net new subscriber additions for the mobile communications services for the 20th month in a row. Freight shipping companies struggled near the 10-year lows. Tokyo Electric dropped on nationalization worries.

[R]7:00 PM Tokyo – The Nikkei index in Japan declined ahead of the European summit. Softbank led the net new subscriber additions for the mobile communications services for the 20th month in a row. Freight shipping companies struggled near the 10-year lows.[/R]

Japan stock markets edged lower a day after indexes soared. Investors were also on back foot after European leaders struggled to find a common voice ahead of the 2-day meeting that begins later today.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average decreased 0.7% to 8,664.58 and the broader Topix index fell 0.6% to 745.11.

Trading volume on the main board of Tokyo Stock Exchange increased to 1.81 billion shares from 1.59 billion shares on Tuesday with 1,366 stocks closing higher and 204 closing lower.

The European Central Bank later in the day is expected to cut rate to 1% and urge political leaders to expedite fiscal austerity plans and promote fiscal union in the region.

Stock Movers

Toyota Motor decreased 25 yen to 2,647 yen and Honda Motor Co. fell 45 yen to 2,450 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd declined 15 yen to 693 yen.

Sony Corp increased 1 yen to 1,453 yen, Panasonic Corp fell 21 yen at 714 yen and Canon Inc closed down 20 yen to 3,470 yen. Nintendo Co. Ltd decreased 90 yen to 11,060 yen.

European Commission fined six makers of compressors for refrigeration including Panasonic and asked the company to pay 7.7 million euros.

Olympus Corp increased 50 yen to 1,178 yen after the company said it plans to set up two independent panels to review the responsibility of auditors. The company is also looking to decide what legal course to take to pursue those who participated in hiding losses for more than a decade.

Olympus President Shuichi Takayama said on Wednesday that the entire board will resign after the release of the revised financial statement.

Fanuc Ltd closed unchanged at 13,100 yen and Kyocera closed down 120 yen at 6,800 yen. Nikon Corp fell 43 yen to 1,742 yen.

Elpida Memory Inc rose 9 yen to 402 yen and Ulvac Inc dropped 12 yen to 1,118 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd fell 1 yen to 287 yen, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd was flat at 147 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. closed down 1 yen at 191 yen.

Daiichi Sankyo Ltd fell 8 yen to 1,450 yen and Fast Retailing Co. decreased 1% to 13,070 yen.

Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdings, Inc closed down 25 yen to 1,459 yen and NKSJ Holdings Inc fell 14 yen to 1,577 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed down 2 yen at 346 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group decreased 7 yen to 2,243 yen.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc dropped 11.3% to 244 yen after the Mainichi newspaper reported that the government is considering to make an emergency investment of 1 trillion yen or $13 billion via a preferred share purchase and effectively nationalizing the troubled nuclear plant operators.

Komatsu Ltd decreased 14 yen to 2,007 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co increased 12 yen to 1,401 yen.

Softbank Corp increased 9 yen to 2,422 yen, KDDI fell 1% to 501,000 yen and NTT DoCoMo, Inc declined 0.5% to 138,800 yen.

Softbank Corp said it added net new 312,000 subscribers in November on strong sales of new mobile hand set model from Apple.