Nikkei Extends Gain, Asian Markets Advance

Hiruki Nakamura
23 Jul, 2013
New York City

The yen in Tokyo declined and market indexes advanced for the second day in a row. Toyota Motor and Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metals agreed to lift prices for steel sheets. SoftBank gained 5% and Sony advanced 3%.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – The yen in Tokyo declined and market indexes advanced for the second day in a row. Toyota Motor and Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metals agreed to lift prices for steel sheets. SoftBank gained 5% and Sony advanced 3%.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo traded higher in choppy trading for the second day in a row as investors focused on larger export companies and the yen declined.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 120.47 or 0.8% to 14,778.51 and the Topix rose 6.19 to 1,222.72.

The yen edged lower in Tokyo trading to close at 100.05 against one dollar and exporters rebounded.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp slid 10 yen to 6,480 yen and Honda Motor Co. fell 10 yen to 3,910 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd lowered 1 yen to 1,112 yen.

Sony climbed 76 yen to 2,295 yen. Canon Inc jumped 40 yen to 3,420 yen and Nikon fell 15 yen to 2,283 yen.

Fanuc Corp gained 210 yen to 15,180 yen and Softbank Corp soared 330 yen or 5.1% to 6,820 yen.

Seven & I Holdings Co rose 5 yen to 3,985 yen and Fast Retailing Co. added 200 to 36,650 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 2 yen to 670 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group increased 20 yen to 4,895 yen.

Denso Corporation rose 20 yen to 4,985 yen after the media reports suggested that the automobile parts maker is in talks to invest as much as 2 billion yen in Sharp Corporation.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation climbed 3.3% to 309 yen after the news paper Nikkei said the company and Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to raise steel sheet prices by nearly 10% for orders between April and September months.