Nikkei Reverses Course for Now as the Yen Slides

Hiruki Nakamura
28 May, 2013
New York City

The Nikkei index in Tokyo jumped as much as 1.4% after two-day decline of more than 10%. The yen reversed its course and export sensitive companies led the rebound. Sony and Panasonic are increasingly focusing on the markets in India as the demand for electronic devices boom.

[R]5:30 PM Tokyo – The Nikkei index in Tokyo jumped as much as 1.4% after two-day decline of more than 10%. The yen reversed its course and export sensitive companies led the rebound. Sony and Panasonic are increasingly focusing on the markets in India as the demand for electronic devices boom.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo rebounded after turbulent two days of trading and market indexes gained more than 1% at close.

The yen reversed its earlier rebound and eased against the U.S. dollar and the euro and analysts blamed recent market volatility on the shifts in sentiments in the currency markets.

The yen edged higher to 102.20 against one dollar.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 169.33 or 1.2% to 14,311.98 and the broader Topix Index jumped 14.20 to 1,168.27.

The Nikkei is still up 38% for the yea r so far and declined 3.5% in the last week and nearly 15% stocks of the total of 3,700 are trading 25% below its peak in the year.

Stocks in Review

After the yen declined Mazda advanced 6.5% to 428 yen. Mitsubishi Motors surged 14.3% to 168 yen.

Toyota Motor Corp soared 290 yen or 4.9% to 6,210 yen and Honda Motor Co. jumped 150 yen to 4,035 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd advanced 45 yen or 4.2% to 1,121 yen.

Separately, Toyota said it plans to pay 1.1 billion yen in compensation and 428 million yen in bonus to directors and audit and supervisory board members.

Sony climbed 65 yen to 2,078. Canon Inc rose 35 yen to 3,695 yen and Nikon slid 13 yen to 2,760 yen.

Fanuc Corp. added 110 yen to 15,430 yen Softbank Corp up 40 yen to 5,210 yen.

Seven & I Holdings Co rose 10 yen to 3,665 yen. Fast Retailing Co. jumped 850 yen to 38,100 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group up 12 yen to 607 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group gained 85 yen to 4,145 yen.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc plunged 6% to 612 yen after the parliamentary committee in the upper house approved more compensation claims for Fukushima Dai-Ichi bill beyond the expiry of a 3-year statutory time frame.