Cautious Japanese Corporations Hold Earnings Outlook, Sony Struggles

Hiruki Nakamura
09 May, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo traded down after a string of earnings announcements and the yen advanced. Corporations are holding out cautious outlook estimating profitability in the current fiscal year at 90 yen to a dollar.

[R]5:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo traded down after a string of earnings announcements and the yen advanced. Corporations are holding out cautious outlook estimating profitability in the current fiscal year at 90 yen to a dollar.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo trading extended gains as companies report earnings and trade data from China lifted sentiment.

The yen dropped as low as 98.77 against one dollar.

Since mid-November, the yen has declined 22% and the Nikkei index has advanced 67% and several key components of the index has surged more.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 94.21 or 0.7% to 14,191.48 and the broader Topix Index dropped 12.51 or 1.1% to 1,181.83.

China’s inflation rate climbed above expectation but remained below than the government’s forecasted in March.

The National Bureau of Statistics showed, inflation in China increased to 2.4% in April from 2.1% the month before and below forecast of annual rate to 3.5% the Chinese government.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp declined 80 yen to 5,760 yen and Honda Motor Co. dropped 50 yen to 3,930 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd rose 13 yen to 1,032 yen.

After the close, Toyota Motor reported profit increased four-fold and estimated operating profit in the current fiscal year at 1.8 trillion yen or $18.2 billion compared to 2.3 trillion yen in 2008.

Sony slumped 24 yen to 1,744. Canon Inc down 35 yen to 3,470 yen and Nikon fell 11 yen to 2,182 yen.

Sony Corp after the close reported net profit of 43 billion yen for the year ending in March on one-time gain of $2 billion after it sold its headquarter in New York and stakes in a chemical unit and in health-care data provider M3 Inc.

Sony estimated operating income to increase to 230 million yen and sales to increase 10% to 7.5 trillion yen. Sony said it TV unit lost money for the ninth year in a row with a loss of 69.6 billion yen totaling a loss of 800 billion yen or $8 billion.

Toshiba Corp extended losses by 4% after it reported worse-than-expected operating profit on weak TV sales.

Fanuc Corp. added 30 yen to 15,820 yen Softbank Corp climbed 270 yen to 5,230 yen.

Bridgestone Corp plunged 6.5% after the tire maker held its outlook for operating profit for the year to December unchanged at 382 billion yen.

Sumitomo Heavy plunged 11% to 409 yen after the maker of heavy machinery maker estimated operating profit of 30 billion yen in the current fiscal year.

Seven & I Holdings Co declined 95 yen to 3,690 yen. Fast Retailing Co. closed unchanged at 36,250 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 10 yen to 656 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group dropped 95 yen to 4,580 yen.