Nikkei Slips; Weak Yen Lifts Earnings at Casio and Toray

Hiruki Nakamura
07 Nov, 2013
New York City

Nikkei in Tokyo edged lower and the yen hovered near its recent lows as more than 300 companies are scheduled to release earnings before the end of the week. Casio Computer Co and Toray Industries Inc were among the few to report higher earnings on weaker yen.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Nikkei in Tokyo edged lower and the yen hovered near its recent lows as more than 300 companies are scheduled to release earnings before the end of the week. Casio Computer Co and Toray Industries Inc were among the few to report higher earnings on weaker yen.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo edged lower as investors digest at least 200 releases and looked for clues of the impact of the recent fall in yen.

Casio and Toray were among the few leading companies to report rising earnings but several smaller companies reported less than expected earnings rise.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 108.87 or 0.8% to 14,228.44 and the Topix slid 7.43 to 1,184.73.

The yen closed lowered at 98.59 against one dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp dropped 80 yen to 6,270 yen, Honda Motor Co. fell 30 yen to 3,900 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd rose 2 yen to 887 yen.

Sony gained 5 yen to 1,694 yen.

Softbank Corp slumped 70 yen to 7,480 yen and Fast Retailing Co. dropped 500 yen to 31,750 yen.

Casio Computer Co Ltd dropped 2.9% to 925 yen after the consumer electronics products maker reported net sales in the first-half ending in September jumped 5% to 151.7 billion yen from 144.5 billion yen a year ago.

Net income in the period surged 30.1% to 5.67 billion yen compared to 4.36 billion yen and diluted earnings per share increased to 21.07 yen from 16.20 yen a year earlier.

Toray Industries Inc soared 5.7% to 647 yen after the conglomerate said revenue in the first-half ending in September surged 13.3% to 853.8 billion yen from 753.7 billion yen a year ago.

Net income in the period climbed 46.8% to 29.4 billion yen compared to 20 billion yen and diluted earnings per share jumped to 17.51 yen from 11.93 yen a year earlier.

The company lifted revenue forecast for the fiscal 2014 to climb 1.85 trillion yen from 1.59 trillion yen in previous year and net income to surge to 65 billion yen compared to 48.5 billion yen a year ago.

Xinhua Holdings Ltd declined 2.7% to 433 yen after the Japan-based fingerprint authentication technology provider agreed to sell its 25% stake to Technoglobal Inc. and KGI Asia to develop the mobile payment business using fingerprint authentication.