Longest Rally in Japan Stocks in 3-years Halts, Seven & I in Focus

Hiruki Nakamura
04 Apr, 2014
New York City

Stocks is Tokyo halted a two-week long rally ahead of Bank of Japan meeting on Monday. Seven & I estimated lower than expected earnings in the current fiscal year. Stocks of real estate developers extended rally to the eighth day on positive outlook.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks is Tokyo halted a two-week long rally ahead of Bank of Japan meeting on Monday. Seven & I estimated lower than expected earnings in the current fiscal year. Stocks of real estate developers extended rally to the eighth day on positive outlook.[/R]

Stocks halted a two-week rally, the longest in three years ahead of the Bank of Japan meeting scheduled next week. Stocks were in the longest rally in last three years.

Despite the rally in stocks, the Nikkei index is down 7.5% in the year so far.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 8.11 to 15,063.77 and the Topix index fell 0.88 to 1,215.89.

The yen slipped to 103.90 against the U.S. dollar.

The Bank of Japan is scheduled to commence its two-day meeting on Monday, the first meeting of policy makers after the sales tax increase this month.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp fell 48 yen to 5,792 yen. Honda Motor Co slid 26 yen to 3,674 yen. Nissan Motor Co Ltd gained 0.8% to 947 yen.

Sony rose 3 yen to 1,994 yen.

Softbank Corp dropped 219 yen to 7,921 yen after the mobile communication services provider’s clean energy unit plans to invest in offshore wind project by Wind Power Energy Co.

The project plans to set up a 90 megawatt station off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture of Tokyo.

Fast Retailing Co jumped 265 yen to 38,665 yen.

NTT Docomo Inc slid 0.4% to 1,599 yen after a Nikkei report that the cellular operator plans to invest more than $4 billion this year on the expansion of its 4G LTE mobile network.

Osaka Organic Chemical Ind. Ltd fell 0.8% to 466 yen after the Japan-based specialty chemicals maker reported revenue in the first-quarter ending in February edged up 0.9% to 5.44 billion yen from 5.39 billion yen a year ago period.

Net income in the quarter surged 28.8% to 272 million yen compared to 211 million yen and diluted earnings per share jumped to 11.8 yen from 9.22 yen a year earlier.

S-Pool, Inc climbed 3.8% to 869 yen after the outsourcing service provider said net sales in the first-quarter ending in February jumped 23.1% to 1.49 billion yen from 1.21 billion yen a year ago.

Net in the quarter swung to a profit 10 million yen compared to a loss of 2 million yen a year earlier.

Real estate developers’ seven day long rally got another boost after Credit Suisse issued positive comments for the profit outlook at Mitsui Fudosan.

Mitsui Fudosan increased 2.3% to 3,322 yen and Sekisui House SI Investment Corp decreased 3.6% to 101,000 yen after the company said it plans to raise as much as 11.15 billion yen through a stock offering.

Seven & I Holdings Co decreased 1.2% to 3,928 yen after the company estimated net income of 184 billion yen or $1.8 billion. The company estimate fell short of analysts’ estimate of 189 billion yen.