Tokyo Stocks in 8-day Rally, Manufacturing Sentiment Improves in Japan

Hiruki Nakamura
01 Apr, 2014
New York City

Stocks extended rally to the eighth day in Tokyo and construction and airlines stocks participated in the advance. Office products retailer reported March month sales increased 31%. Software developer Jastec reported net income surge of 45% on 10% increase in sales.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks extended rally to the eighth day in Tokyo and construction and airlines stocks participated in the advance. Office products retailer reported March month sales increased 31%. Software developer Jastec reported net income surge of 45% on 10% increase in sales.[/R]

Investors bid up stocks for the eight day in a row and the broader Topix Index extended rally.

Stocks climbed led by financials and exporters and the Topix gained in the longest rally since April 12. Construction and airlines also were among the list of most advanced and most active on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 35.84 or 0.2% to 14,791.99 and the Topix index rose 1.36 to 1,204.25.

The yen declined to 103.34 against the U.S. dollar.

The Bank of Japan survey of large manufacturing companies showed the index at 17 in March, an increase from 16 in December. The sentiment index in tracked by the Bank fo Japan in its quarterly publication.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp slid 13 yen to 5,813 yen. Honda Motor Co fell 15 yen to 3,619 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd added 0.1% to 921 yen.

Sony jumped 39 yen or 1.9% to 2,011 yen.

Softbank Corp gained 150 yen to 7,950 yen after the U.S.-based Brightstar Corp completed acquisition of the Commerce and Services, a division of SoftBank BB Corp.

The new company SoftBank Commerce & Services Corp. will act as a subsidiary of Brightstar with headquartered in Tokyo. The company expects revenues in the year to increase to $3 billion.

Fast Retailing Co declined 445 yen to 36,990 yen.

ASKUL Corporation slipped 1.2% to 3,210 yen after the office products retailer reported net sales in the month ending on March 20 climbed 30.8% to 25.2 billion yen from 19.2 billion yen a year ago.

The company added growth of sales per customer in the month of March jumped 16.7% compared to 13.8% in the same month of a year ago.

JASTEC Co., Ltd. rose 0.7% to 734 yen after the Japan-based software technology provider said net sales in the first-quarter ending in February climbed 10% to 2.83 billion yen from 2.57 billion yen a year earlier.

Net income in the quarter surged 45.4% to 181 million yen compared to 124 million yen and diluted earnings per share jumped to 10.43 yen from 7.24 yen a year ago.