Tokyo Sell-off Extends to Day Four, Seibu Trims IPO Size 73%

Hiruki Nakamura
09 Apr, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo declined for the fourth day in a row and the trading in yen was in focus after the Bank of Japan did not announce new measures to support the economic expansion. Seibu Holdings trimmed its initial public offering size by 73%.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo declined for the fourth day in a row and the trading in yen was in focus after the Bank of Japan did not announce new measures to support the economic expansion. Seibu Holdings trimmed its initial public offering size by 73%.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo fell sharply and extended losses for the fourth day in a row after the Bank of Japan dashed hopes of additional reforms at the end of two-day meeting yesterday.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average plummeted 307.19 or 2.1% to 14,299.69 and the Topix index declined 24.12 or 2% to 1,150.44.

The Topix index has declined 5.5% from April 3 and the index rose for nine days in a row before.

The yen decreased 0.2% to 102.04 against the U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Toyota Motor Corp declined 173 yen or 3.1% to 5,450 yen after the Japanese automaker said it will recall about 1.3 million vehicles to fix a range of safety defects in several models sold before 2010.

Separately, the company said that it will conduct a safety recall in the U.S.A. of about 472,500 vehicles of certain models between of 2007 and 2010.

Honda Motor Co fell 20 yen to 3,435 yen.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd dropped 2.6% to 908 yen after the Mexican subsidiary, plans to triple its purchases from local manufacturers to $7 billion by 2016.

The automobile company said “more than 80 percent” of the content of Sentra sedan, assembled in Aguascalientes plant and exported to the United States and Brazil are manufactured in Mexico.

Sony declined 66 yen or 3.4% to 1,895 yen after the U.S. entertainment division closed a $200 million financing deal with Texas-based LStar Capital and Citibank.

The deal was closed on yesterday.

Softbank Corp gained 39 yen to 7,256 yen. Fast Retailing Co declined 970 yen or 2.5% to 37,250 yen.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd plunged 5.5% to 376 yen after the Japan-based international shipping company plans to convertible bonds overseas of sell $500 million to raise funds for capital expenditure.

NTT Docomo Inc slumped 2.3% to 1,544 yen after the Japan-base mobile communication company reported net mobile phone subscription in the year ending in March climbed 11.6% to 1,569,300 from a year ago.

Seibu Holdings, Inc, the largest hotel and railways operator said investors sought about 50.1 billion yen or $491 million in an initial public offering of 27.8 million shares.

The company trimmed its offer price to between 1,600 yen and 1,800 yen from its initial filing range of 2,300 yen last month and originally planned to sell as many as 80.9 million shares.

Cerberus, the largest shareholder, with a 35.5% stake in the company do not plan to sell any share in the offering.