Japan Looks Ahead to Election on Sunday, Softbank Bids for Vivendi Music

Hiruki Nakamura
19 Jul, 2013
New York City

Japan is scheduled for upper house election on Sunday and the ruling coalition is expected to win a super majority to end the divided parliament. Resource sector stocks and exporters traded volatile.

[R]4:45 PM Tokyo – Japan is scheduled for upper house election on Sunday and the ruling coalition is expected to win a super majority to end the divided parliament. Resource sector stocks and exporters traded volatile.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo declined after a 4-day rally and exporters and commodities linked stocks were on the decline.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 218.59 or 1.5% to 14,589.91 and the Topix gained 8.77 to 1,222.01. For the week, Nikkei 225 jumped 1.96%.

The yen edged lower in Tokyo trading to close at 100.39 against one dollar and exporters rebounded.

Stocks traded volatile as investors looked ahead to the Sunday national election results for the upper house.

The ruling coalition led by the LDP party is expected to win a majority of 64 seats in the upper house and end the divided parliament. Investors are hoping that after the election Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be able to carry out more fundamental changes and implement growth policies.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp slid 10 yen to 6,470 yen and Honda Motor Co. rose 20 yen to 3,875 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd added 6 yen to 1,121 yen.

Sony fell 6 yen to 2,188 yen. Canon Inc down 35 yen to 3,385 yen and Nikon dropped 46 yen to 2,266 yen.

Fanuc Corp decreased 260 yen to 14,940 yen.

Softbank Corp slid 20 yen to 6,430 yen after the communication service provider formed a joint venture with Bloom Energy Corp., the U.S. fuel cell developer to provide the off-grid power source to corporate clients in Japan.

The company also made takeover bid valued $8.5 billion to Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of France based Vivendi SA. Vivendi rejected unsolicited bid.

Seven & I Holdings Co declined 45 yen to 3,940 yen and Fast Retailing Co. slumped 600 to 36,150 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 5 yen to 674 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group slipped 20 yen to 4,885 yen.

Suzuki Motor Corporation slumped 2.2% to 2,483 yen after the auto maker and Mitsubishi Motors Corp recalled over 250,000 vehicles due to a seat-belt problem.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. dropped 3.3% to 1,317 yen after the shipments of wire and cable dropped for the sixth month in the last seven months.