Weekly Rise of 2.7% in Nikkei

Nigel Thomas
22 Jun, 2012
New York City

Tokyo stocks declined as investors turned away from international markets and sharpened focused on domestic companies. Resource and steel companies fell more than 1% after prices of gold, copper and oil dropped the most in five months.

[R]6:30 PM Tokyo – Tokyo stocks declined as investors turned away from international markets and sharpened focused on domestic companies. Resource and steel companies fell more than 1% after prices of gold, copper and oil dropped the most in five months.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo traded lower as global economic worries gathered storms and resource prices edged lower and the dollar rose against the most currencies.

Investors shifted focus inwards and preferred to add positions in large cap stocks as international outlook dimmed and crude oil prices eased 3% and extended loss in the year to 21%.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 25.72 to 8,798.35 and the broader Topix index decreased 3.04 to 750.92. For the week, the Nikkei increased 2.7% in the largest weekly rise in five months and edged towards its five-week moving average.

The yen declined for the third day in a row to 80.31 against one dollar and investors sharpened focus on domestic companies on the persistent strength in the currency despite the recent declines.

Stock Movers

Honda, Toyota, Sony and Softbank were among the most actively traded stocks. Also, banks were in focus after the latest downgrade of 15 largest U.S. banks sparred Japanese banks.

Stocks in mining and steel sectors declined after prices of gold, copper and oil fell more than 3%. Steel companies lost more than 1%.

Kansai Electric Power Company, Inc slumped 18 cents to 945 yen and Tokyo Electric Power increased 7 yen to 171 yen.

Weaker yen lifted automakers and electronics exporters. Toyota Motor was unchanged to 3,085 yen and Honda Motor Co. advanced 21 yen to 2,686 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd declined 14 yen to 748 yen.

Sony Corp advanced 62 yen to close at 1,163 yen and Panasonic Corp closed up at 9 yen to 628 yen. Toshiba was unchanged to 299 yen.

Sony was the subject of several media speculation that the company is likely to invest as much as 50 billion yen in struggling Olympus and may partner with Panasonic to make TV sets.

Renesas Electronics Corp was unchanged to 334 yen after on media reports that the largest shareholder in the company has agreed to extend capital of 50 billion yen during its restructuring.

Olympus Corp gained 26 yen to 1,196 yen, Nikon rose 1 yen to 2,398 yen and Fanuc Ltd declined 20 yen to 12,820 yen. Canon Inc dropped 25 yen to 3,250 yen.

Komatsu Ltd slipped 32 yen to 1,888 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co slid 13 yen to 1,500 yen after Chinese manufacturing shrank for the eight month in a row.

Inpex Corp fell 2.5% to 452,500 yen and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. dropped 100 yen to 3,005 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd unchanged to 289 yen; Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd added 1 yen to 155 yen and Nippon Yusen K.K. shrink 4 yen to 213 yen.

Fast Retailing Co. declined 110 yen to 15,350 yen and J. Front Retailing Co. Ltd fell 2 yen to 392 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group slid 4 yen to 368 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group slumped 26 yen to 2,513 yen. Nomura Holdings, Inc added 3 yen to 287 yen.

Credit Saison Co Ltd gained 20 yen to 1,592 yen.

Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd was unchanged to 288 yen and Mitsui Fudosan decreased 9 yen to 1,433 yen and Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. slipped 9 yen to 1,835 yen.

Nippon Steel fell 1 yen to 178 yen and JFE Holdings Inc declined 27 yen to 1,321 yen.