Nikkei Drops 2%; Toyota, Nissan U.S. Sales Rise, Sony in Focus

Hiruki Nakamura
04 Dec, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo fell a day after averages closed at a six-year high. The yen rebounded from a six-month low. Toyota and Nissan increased U.S. sales in November but Honda sales declined. Sony PlayStation PS 4 sales are ahead of expectations.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo fell a day after averages closed at a six-year high. The yen rebounded from a six-month low. Toyota and Nissan increased U.S. sales in November but Honda sales declined.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo dropped after the yen recovered from its six-month low and investors booked profit after market indexes reached a new yearly highs.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 341.72 or 2.2% to 15,407.94 and the Topix dropped 21.55 or 1.7% to 1,240.99.

The yen closed at 102.49 against one dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp dropped 110 yen to 6,280 yen. Honda Motor Co. slumped 70 yen to 4,230 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd fell 16 yen to 912 yen.

Asian auto makers reported sharp gains in November auto sales on heavy discounting during the holiday period in the last week in the month that included so-called Black Friday.

Toyota sales increased 10% and Nissan sales rose 11%.

Toyota said combined U.S. sales of Toyota, Lexus and Scion branded vehicles increased to 178,044 from 161,695 a year ago month.

Honda and Acura brand vehicle U.S. sales in the month declined 0.1% to 116,507 from 115,580 a year ago.

Nissan and Infiniti brand vehicles increased to 106,528 from 96,197 in the month a year ago.

Sony declined 65 yen or 3.4% to 1,845 yen after the electronic and entertainment products maker agreed to acquire northern Japan based Renesas Electronics Corporation, the automotive microcontroller chips maker.

Sony said it sold more than 250,000 latest PlayStation PS4 and earned revenue of £87 million in just 2 days in the United Kingdom. In the same period, Microsoft sold its Xbox One 150,000 units in the U.K.

Sony added worldwide sale surpassed 2.1 million units as of December 1, including 700,000 units in Europe and Australasia.

Softbank Corp slipped 140 yen to 8,500 yen and merged its subsidiaries Willcom and eAccess.

Fast Retailing Co. declined 750 yen to 38,200 yen after the Uniqlo casual clothing chain operator said November same-store sales increased 7.7% and sales at company owned stores climbed 10%.Total sales including online sales jumped 9.7%.

ANA Holdings Inc slid 0.9% to 207 yen and the airline’s low-cost carrier Vanilla Air showed off its first tailor-made Airbus A320 aircraft to the press at Narita Airport from December 2.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited slipped 1.2% to 5,040 yen after signing the agreement with Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for commercialization rights and new drug application for registration of glatiramer acetate for treatment of multiple sclerosis in Japan.