Nikkei and Yen Struggle; Air Asia and ANA to Dissolve Joint Venture

Hiruki Nakamura
25 Jun, 2013
New York City

Market indexes in Tokyo closed lower and the yen rebounded above 98. ANA Holdings and the largest discount carried Air Asia plan to dissolve their joint venture. Sumitomo Life Insurance may bid for life insurance unit of PT Bank Negara Indonesia.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo – Market indexes in Tokyo closed lower and the yen rebounded above 98. ANA Holdings and the largest discount carried Air Asia plan to dissolve their joint venture. Sumitomo Life Insurance may bid for life insurance unit of PT Bank Negara Indonesia.[/R]

Market indexes in Tokyo opened higher and the decline in yen and stabilization in China’s money market offset weakness industrial companies.

At close, market indexes declined and the yen gained to close at 97.81 against one dollar.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 93.44 or 0.7% to 12,969.34 and the Topix fell 10.98 or 1% to 1,078.66.

Chinese interbank market stabilized and the overnight lending rate declined45 basis points to 6% after surging nearly 25% in last week’s trading.

However, investors were cautious in trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.9% after dropping more than 5% in yesterday’s trading and Hang Seng index gained 0.2% after falling 2.2% on Monday.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp slumped 80 yen to 5,670 yen and Honda Motor Co. closed unchanged at 3,500 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd fell 11 yen to 984 yen.

Sony gained 7 yen to 1,973 yen. Canon Inc closed unchanged at 3,250 yen and Nikon rose 2 yen to 2,317 yen.

Fanuc Corp dropped 240 yen to 14,030 yen Softbank Corp declined 170 yen to 5,430 yen.

Seven & I Holdings Co slipped 45 yen to 3,425 yen. Fast Retailing Co. gained 200 to 30,500 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 3 yen to 575 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group slumped 60 yen to 4,265 yen.

ANA Holdings Inc. slipped 2% to 197 yen after AirAsia Bhd said it terminated its joint venture with ANA Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Life Insurance Company intends to bid for a stake in the life insurance unit of Indonesia based PT Bank Negara.