Nikkei Plunges 3.3% in Tokyo, Yen Advances

Hiruki Nakamura
29 Jul, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo fell sharply after investors turned cautious ahead of the flood of earnings in the week and the yen gained. Investors also shied away from risk assets as lawmakers are not scheduled to meet for the next six weeks.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo fell sharply after investors turned cautious ahead of the flood of earnings in the week and the yen gained. Investors also shied away from risk assets as lawmakers are not scheduled to meet for the next six weeks.[/R]

Market indexes in Tokyo declined sharply after the yen rose and investors focused on the barrage of earnings scheduled to release this week.

More than 650 companies are scheduled to release earnings this week and investors also considered the next meeting of lawmakers scheduled not before September, long time away.

In addition, National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing estimated net income at industrial companies increased 6.3% in June, slower than 15.5% rise in May.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 468.85 or 3.3% to 13,661.13 and the Topix dropped 38.61 to 1,128.45.

The yen weakened in Tokyo trading to close at 98.04 against one dollar and exporters rebounded.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp dropped 250 yen to 5,900 yen and Honda Motor Co. declined 115 yen to 3,675 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd plunged 55 yen to 1,042 yen.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi jointly agreed to work to promote the installation of chargers for electric-powered vehicles and build network of service charge stations in Japan.

Sony slumped 76 yen to 2,057 yen and Canon Inc slipped 65 yen to 3,100 yen. Nikon rose 4 yen to 2,084 yen.

Fanuc Corp jumped 310 yen to 14,910 yen and Softbank Corp plummeted 280 yen to 6,240 yen.

Seven & I Holdings Co fell 55 yen to 3,645 yen and Fast Retailing Co. dropped 1,350 to 34,100 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group slid 25 yen to 603 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group decreased 135 yen to 4,465 yen.

Komatsu Ltd. dropped 3.7% to 2,163 yen after the industrial machinery maker reported sales in the first quarter fell 3.1% to 455.2 billion yen and operating profit declined 5.9% to 52.4 billion yen from 55.7 billion yen a year earlier.

The company added sales of machine tools for the quarter increased steadily.

KDDI Corporation slipped 1.4% to 5,050 yen after the Nikkei newspaper said the mobile operator expects to report record operating profit for the first quarter of 70% to 160 billion yen. And, sales are likely to jump 10% from 861.6 billion yen a year ago.

Jupiter Telecommunications, a subsidiary to add consolidated profit by approx 20 billion yen.