Nikkei in Japan Struggles Near Yearly Low

Nigel Thomas
28 Dec, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged lower and trading volume hovered near the lows last seen seven years ago. Tepco dropped 12% today after a minister urged the company to temporarily relinquish the control to access government aid. J. Front Retailing lifted annual earnings estimate.

[R]7:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan edged lower and trading volume hovered near the lows last seen seven years ago. Tepco dropped 12% today after a minister urged the company to temporarily relinquish the control to access government aid. J. Front Retailing lifted annual earnings estimate.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo traded lower as volume hovered near the lows last seen seven years ago and only the stocks driven by the headline news reported slight pickup in volume.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.2% to 8,423.62 and the broader Topix index decreased 0.4% to 721.45.

In stock trading on the main board of Tokyo Stock Exchange, 1 billon shares changed hands, higher than 807.2 million shares on Tuesday. The trading volume was the lowest in the last seven years yesterday according to the data available from the Tokyo Stock Exchange and reported by Reuters.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry report showed industrial production dropped 2.6% from a month ago in November impacted by the floods in Thailand. October factory output declined 2.2%.

Separately, Japan's retail sales fell 2.3% annually in November.

Banks edged lower ahead of the Italian bond auction. Late in the evening, Italy completed the sale of €10.7 billion short terms bonds at a sharply lower yield of 3.2% from the previous auction of 6.5% in November.

The Treasury is scheduled to sell more long term bonds tomorrow and 10-year bond yield traded at 6.8%, still near the 7% level that most economists consider unsustainable.

Stock Movers

Toyota Motor rose 21 yen to 2,527 yen and Honda Motor Co. closed up 3 yen to 2,343 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd increased 2 yen to 686 yen.

Sony Corp decreased 33 yen to 1,354 yen, Panasonic Corp fell 1 yen at 642 yen and Canon Inc closed down 55 yen to 3,415 yen.

Nintendo Co. Ltd decreased 170 yen to 10,560 yen and Nexon Co Ltd fell 34 yen to 1,117 yen.

Olympus Corp decreased 51 yen to 954 yen and Nitto Boseki Co. dropped 5% to 267 yen after the company lowered its full year earnings estimate to 1.4 billion yen.

Fanuc Ltd closed up 190 yen to 11,870 yen and Kyocera fell 50 yen at 6,160 yen. Nikon Corp decreased 23 yen to 1,692 yen.

Elpida Memory Inc fell 9 yen to 370 yen and Ulvac, Inc fell 5 yen to 929 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd increased 1 yen to 293 yen, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd closed up 1 yen to 141 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. decreased 1 yen to 195 yen.

Daiichi Sankyo Ltd increased 14 yen to 1,522 yen and Astellas Pharma Inc closed up 15 yen at 3,085 yen.

Fast Retailing Co. increased 170 yen to 13,930 yen and J. Front Retailing Co. Ltd added 13 yen to 368 yen after it lifted its full-year net income estimate to 17.6 billion yen from 7.6 billion yen.

Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdings, Inc declined 20 yen to 1,408 yen and NKSJ Holdings Inc fell 11 yen to 1,487 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed down 3 yen at 323 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group decreased 39 yen to 2,118 yen.

Komatsu Ltd decreased 22 yen to 1,794 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co decreased 13 yen to 1,274 yen.

Softbank Corp closed up 8 yen at 2,303 yen, KDDI closed unchanged at 500,000 yen and NTT DoCoMo, Inc rose 0.7% to 139,900 yen.