Yen in Focus, Nintendo Plunges 6%

Hiruki Nakamura
20 Jan, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo closed lower and the yen extended losses after China reported slower but healthy economic growth and strong fixed assets investment and retail sales. Nintendo plunged 6% after the video game maker lowered its Wii U

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo closed lower and the yen extended losses after China reported slower but healthy economic growth and strong fixed assets investment and retail sales. Nintendo plunged 6% after the video game maker lowered its Wii U’s yearly sales by more than two-thirds.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo traded lower and investors looked overseas for direction ahead of Monday market closure in New York.

China reported a slight decline in economic expansion in the fourth quarter but still ahead of expectations.

Economy in China expanded at 7.7% annual rate in the December quarter after expanding at 7.8% in the September quarter, National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing.

Retail sales in China surged 13.6% in December from a year ago after rising 13.7% in November, statistics agency said.

Industrial production increased 9.7% in December matching the increase in November and fixed assets investment rose 9.7% from a year ago month.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 92.78 or 0.6% to 15,641.68 and the Topix index slid 3.53 to 1,293.86.

The yen edged up to 104.02 against the U.S. dollar and extended gains in the year so far to 2.5% after China reported a slight slowdown in economic expansion.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp gained 6 yen to 6,206 yen. Honda Motor Co rose 15 yen to 4,156 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd added 4 yen to 962 yen.

Sony slipped 13 yen to 1,767 yen.

Softbank Corp dropped 50 yen to 8,838 yen after mobile communication service provider entered direct talks with Germany-based owner Deutsche Telekom to combine its Sprint Corp unit with the T-Mobile US.

Fast Retailing Co declined 625 yen to 38,005 yen.

ANA Holdings Inc slipped 0.9% to 231 yen after AirAsia the biggest budget carrier cancelled the plans to reopen a Japanese unit after a partnership with ANA Holdings Inc. that unraveled in June

Nintendo Co dropped 6.2% to 13,745 yen after the video game console maker reported disappointing sale of its Wii U console and estimated a surprise loss.

The game hardware maker reversed its estimate to an operating loss of 35 billion yen compared to its previous estimate of 100 billion in operating profit.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp closed unchanged at 337 yen after a power failure, smoke release from a coke oven that stopped about two hours later, the facility was hit again with same problems.

The steelmaker determines the cause and exact location. The entire plant was shutdown on Friday

Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc lowered 0.4% to 490 yen and the electric power supplier plan to spend about 2.67 trillion or $25.6 billion on strategic investments through partnerships as it plan to invest upstream energy projects and overseas electricity businesses in the ten years.