Nikkei Falls From 6-month High; Mazda Plunges 10%, DeNA Rises 8%

Nigel Thomas
21 Feb, 2012
New York City

Stocks in Japan rested after rising for seven sessions in a row. Mazda Corp plunged 10% after the company is looking to raise capital from stock and debt sale. DeNA Corp gained after it struck an agreement to expand in Korea.

[R]8:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan rested after rising for seven sessions in a row. Mazda Corp plunged 10% after the company is looking to raise capital from stock and debt sale. DeNA Corp gained after it struck an agreement to expand in Korea.[/R]

Stocks in Japan eased for the first time after rising 6% in the last seven days. The benchmark Nikkei is still up 6.5% in the year so far.

Market sentiment was cautious after the Greek bailout agreement and profit taking was widespread in resource and banking stocks. Mazda dropped after the company was said to raise capital to cover the recent losses.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.2% to 9,463.02 and the broader Topix index declined 1.1% to 819.03.

In stock trading, volume declined for the second day to 2.38 billion shares from 2.42 billion on Monday on the main board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The yen dropped to a 6-month low to 79.89 against a dollar.

Stock Movers

Mazda Corp dropped 9.9% to 145 yen after NHK Television said that the automaker is planning to raise as much as 100 billion yen. Independent sources also confirmed that the company is also looking to raise 70 billion in subordinate loans from banks.

Toyota Motor closed down 30 yen at 3,320 yen and Honda Motor Co. fell 40 yen to 2,935 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd decreased 12 yen to 796 yen.

Sony Corp decreased 24 yen to 1,657 yen, Panasonic Corp fell 14 yen to 710 yen and Canon Inc closed up 20 yen to 3,610 yen. Nintendo Co. Ltd declined 190 yen to 11,490 yen.

Olympus Corp increased 4% to 1,309 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported that the company is planning to promote long time executive Hiroyuki Sasa to president from as early as the next financial year in April.

Nikon decreased 1 yen to 2,145 yen, Fanuc Ltd fell 140 yen to 14,270 yen and Kyocera declined 50 yen at 7,010 yen.

DeNA Co. Ltd increased 8% or 195 yen to 2,576 yen after the online game developer announced its plan to expand to Korea with a partnership with Korea based Daum Communications Corp.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd closed down 4 yen to 364 yen, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd closed down 3 yen at 181 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. fell 2 yen to 240 yen.

Fast Retailing Co. closed unchanged at 16,450 yen and J. Front Retailing Co. Ltd closed down 4 yen to 379 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group decreased 4 yen to 407 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group declined 33 yen at 2,674 yen. Nomura Holdings, Inc decreased 4 yen to 349 yen.

Komatsu Ltd decreased 13 yen to 2,410 yen, Hitachi Construction Machinery Co decreased 24 yen to 1,670 yen and Toyo Engineering Corp closed unchanged at 325 yen.

Softbank Corp rose 17 yen at 2,459 yen, KDDI Corp closed up 0.2% to 520,000 yen and NTT DoCoMo, Inc closed up 400 yen to 137,300 yen.