Nikkei Rebounds 2.2%, Toyota Leads Global Auto Sales

Hiruki Nakamura
28 Oct, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo gained and the Nikkei index soared 2.2%, a rebound from Friday losses. The yen weakened to 97.60 against one dollar. Toyota and its subsidiaries sold 2.5 million vehicles in third quarter, surpassing 2.4 million sold by General Motors.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo gained and the Nikkei index soared 2.2%, a rebound from Friday losses. The yen weakened to 97.60 against one dollar. Toyota and its subsidiaries sold 2.5 million vehicles in third quarter, surpassing 2.4 million sold by General Motors.[/R]

Stocks surged in Tokyo and rebounded from sharp losses in Friday’s trading following gains in the U.S. and European markets.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 307.85 or 2.2% to 14,396.04 and the Topix jumped 20.08 or 1.7% to 1,198.36.

The yen slipped to 97.12 against one dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota was in focus after it reported rising sales in Asia, U.S. and in Europe in the third quarter.

The largest automaker reported third quarter sale of 2.5 million vehicles, surpassing 2.4 million sold by General Motors and 2.33 million sold by Volkswagen AG.

For the first nine months, Toyota led the global industry sale with 7.41 million vehicles following 7.25 million vehicle sales by GM and 7.03 million by VW, according to company data compiled by 123jump.com research team.

Toyota Motor Corp jumped 110 yen to 6,310 yen.

Honda Motor Co. climbed 75 yen to 3,905 yen after the car maker said its all-time record worldwide production in first-half for the current fiscal year.

The company added production in Japan for the month of September climbed 11.1% to 80,206 units and outside Japan soared 21% to 298,394 units. North America production surged 18% to 147,010 units and the U.S. production climbed 25.7% to 108,751.

Production in Asia jumped 30.6% and in China increased 40.3% to 123,410 units and 71,199 respectively.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd increased 14 yen to 1,009 yen.

Sony increased 59 yen to 1,910 yen.

Softbank Corp gained 80 yen to 7,480 yen and Fast Retailing Co. advanced 1,050 yen or 3.3% to 33,200 yen.

Komatsu Limited climbed 2.6% to 2,358 yen after the construction machinery and vehicles maker lowered its full-year consolidated net sales guidance to 1.86 trillion yen, drop of 9.3%. Net income plunged 26.1% to 136 billion yen.

Komatsu reported net sales for the first-half slid 0.6% to 925.1 billion yen from 930.8 billion yen a year ago. Net income for the period climbed 19.2% to 78.8 billion yen compared to 66.1 billion yen a year earlier.

Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corp jumped 1.8% to 5,140 yen after the Japan-based communication services provider agreed to acquire Virtela Technology Services Inc. valued approx 50 billion yen or $512 million in cash.

Two people close to the deal confirmed the deal.