Nikkei in Tokyo Declined 1.5%; Quarterly Growth Lowered

Nigel Thomas
09 Dec, 2011
New York City

Markets in Tokyo and in Asia closed lower and trading volume surged on the settlements of derivatives contracts. The Cabinet Office lowered the fiscal second quarter annualized economic growth to 5.6% from 6%. Exporters fell on the ongoing euro zone worries.

[R]7:00 PM Tokyo – Markets in Tokyo and in Asia closed lower and trading volume surged on the settlements of derivatives contracts. The Cabinet Office lowered the fiscal second quarter annualized economic growth to 5.6% from 6%. Exporters fell on the ongoing euro zone worries.[/R]

Stocks in Japan declined after European leaders failed to offer a concrete set of steps to contain the debt contagion. The agreement after 10-hour meetings only produced broad language of a consensus among the euro zone nations and not across all 27 European Union members.

The leaders after long and drawn out meetings agreed to a fiscal compact that will restrain spending and impose penalties on nations that exceed targets but failed to agree on treaty changes. The deal for now applies to the euro zone nations plus any other nations that want to join according to sources in Brussels.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 1.5% to 8,536.46 and the broader Topix index fell 0.9% to 738.12. For the week the Nikkei index declined 1.2%.

Trading volume on the main board of Tokyo Stock Exchange increased to 2.57 billion shares from 1.81 billion shares on Thursday on settlements of futures and options contracts.

Market indexes in Hong Kong fell 2.7% and in Shanghai declined 0.6%, in Australian dropped 1.8%. The benchmark index in Mumbai extended losses for the third day by 1.7%.

The Cabinet Office said today that the economic growth in fiscal second quarter ending in September was revised lower to 5.6% from the previous estimate of 6%. Quarterly growth estimate compared to previous quarter was lowered to 1.4% from the previous estimate of 1.5%.

The latest data from the government’s statistics bureau in China indicated industrial output growth declined to 12.4% from a year ago in November and inflation fell to 4.2%.

The central bank in South Korea lowered its 2012 growth outlook to 3.7% from the previous estimate of 4.6%.

Stock Movers

Toyota Motor decreased 11 yen to 2,636 yen and Honda Motor Co. fell 8 yen to 2,442 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd declined 6 yen to 687 yen.

Sony Corp fell 48 yen to 1,405 yen, Panasonic Corp dropped 20 yen at 694 yen and Canon Inc closed down 25 yen to 3,445 yen. Nintendo Co. Ltd decreased 150 yen to 10,910 yen.

Olympus Corp increased 28 yen to 1,206 yen

Fanuc Ltd closed fell 410 yen to 12,690 yen and Kyocera closed down 170 yen at 6,630 yen. Nikon Corp fell 12 yen to 1,730 yen.

Elpida Memory Inc declined 1 yen to 401 yen and Ulvac Inc dropped 14 yen to 1,104 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd fell 6 yen to 281 yen, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd closed down 8 yen to 139 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. fell 4 yen at 187 yen.

Daiichi Sankyo Ltd fell 1 yen to 1,449 yen and Fast Retailing Co. decreased 2% to 12,810 yen.

Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdings, Inc closed down 41 yen to 1,418 yen and NKSJ Holdings Inc fell 69 yen to 1,508 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed down 4 yen at 342 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group decreased 7 yen to 2,236 yen.

Komatsu Ltd decreased 25 yen to 1,982 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co decreased 27 yen to 1,374 yen.

Tokyo Electric Power Co increased 1.2% to 247 yen after Trade Minister said that the government is not looking to inject capital in the troubled nuclear electric utility.

Softbank Corp dropped 61 yen to 2,361 yen, KDDI fell 2.2% to 490,000 yen and NTT DoCoMo, Inc declined 1% to 137,500 yen.