Yen Slides, NEC Sells Biglobe

Hiruki Nakamura
21 Jan, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo gained as the yen continued its slide towards 105 level. Cosmo Oil signed an agreement with Spain based CEP to develop natural gas fields. NEC agreed to sell its Internet service provider service Biglobe for 70 billion yen.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo gained as the yen continued its slide towards 105 level. Cosmo Oil signed an agreement with Spain based CEP to develop natural gas fields. NEC agreed to sell its Internet service provider service Biglobe for 70 billion yen.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo gained and the yen declined as more economists questioned the need for additional stimulus.

Rising inflation expectations in Japan, though still below the average of larger developed economies, has led economists to lower expectations of additional stimulus.

Inflation is picking up steam but is still likely to stay below the Bank of Japan target of 2%.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 154.28 or 0.9% to 15,795.96 and the Topix index rose 2.09 to 1,295.95.

The yen increased to 104.69 against the U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp jumped 94 yen to 6,300 yen. Honda Motor Co fell 27 yen to 4,129 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd slid 1 yen to 961 yen.

Sony rose 4 yen to 1,771 yen.

Softbank Corp gained 36 yen to 8,874 yen. Fast Retailing Co climbed 1,115 yen to 39,120 yen.

Cosmo Oil Company Limited fell 0.5% to 204 yen and the company a signed deal to form a business alliance with Spain-based Compania Espanola de Petroleos SAU to develop natural gas fields.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd slipped 1.2% to 715 and the company plans to collaborate with Hitachi, Ltd and agreed to distributed gas engine power generation systems business in China.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation declined 4.3% to 1,179 yen and said local assembly of ASX has commenced by its unit in Malaysia and will be sold from February.

NEC Corporation gained 1.5% to 276 yen after diversified company plans to sell its internet service provider subsidiary NEC Biglobe Ltd. to a Tokyo-based investment fund Japan Industrial Partners Inc for about 70 billion yen, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Biglobe is the fourth largest Internet service provider in Japan.