Broad Decline in Tokyo Indexes, Zeria Pharma Slumps 7%

Hiruki Nakamura
24 Feb, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo closed lower following general weakness in Asian markets. The yen gained and insurers and developers led the decliners in trading. Zeria Pharmaceutical dropped 7% after the company plans to raise as much as 18.7 billion yen in a public offering.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo closed lower following general weakness in Asian markets. The yen gained and insurers and developers led the decliners in trading. Zeria Pharmaceutical dropped 7% after the company plans to raise as much as 18.7 billion yen in a public offering.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo closed lower and followed the weakness in Asian markets after Chinese banks tightened lending to construction, steel and cement sectors.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 27.99 to 14,837.68 and the Topix index lowered 3.24 to 1,219.07.

The yen advanced to 102.29 against the U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp slumped 58 yen to 5,924 yen. Honda Motor Co fell 19 yen to 3,680 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd lowered 1 yen to 918 yen.

Sony increased 9 yen to 1,775 yen.

Softbank Corp slipped 28 yen to 7,774 yen after the U.S.-based audio products maker Harman International Industries, Inc. signed an agreement with Softbank, Sprint (U.S.A), Trikomsel (Indonesia), and Brightstar worldwide to sell of its new portable blue-tooth wireless speaker.

Fast Retailing Co gained 240 yen to 35,995 yen.

Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd climbed 6.2% to 291 yen after the business equipment and service provider lifted its revenue outlook for the fiscal year ending on July 20 to 136 billion yen from 135 billion yen and net profit to increase 14%.

Zeria Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd plunged 7.3% to 2,469 yen after the company plans to sell 6.66 million shares of treasury stocks in the public market between March 10 and March 13 to raise as much as 18.7 billion yen.

The company plans to use proceeds to reduce debt.