Japan Rally Extends to Tenth Day, Softbank in Focus

Hiruki Nakamura
05 Jun, 2014
New York City

Softbank is nearing a deal to merge its U.S. based Sprint Corp with T-Mobile US Inc. At $40 a share, T-Mobile is valued at $31 billion and after the merger, Deutsche Telekom will control 15% stake in the merged wireless carrier.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Softbank is nearing a deal to merge its U.S. based Sprint Corp with T-Mobile US Inc. At $40 a share, T-Mobile is valued at $31 billion and after the merger, Deutsche Telekom will control 15% stake in the merged wireless carrier.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo advanced for the eleventh day in a row and the yen edged lower against the dollar and the euro.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average edged up 11.41 to 15,079.37 and the broader Topix index slid 1.20 to 1,232.75.

The yen slid to 102.54 against one U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Bit-isle Inc slipped 1.1% to 650 yen after the information technology company net sales in the third-quarter ending in April jumped 6.6% to 13.20 billion yen from 12.39 billion yen a year ago period.

Net income in the quarter declined 6.9% to 1.22 billion yen compared to 1.31 billion yen and diluted earnings per share dropped to 33.77 yen from 38.56 yen a year earlier.

Separately, the company said its subsidiary Terra Power Co., Ltd. to acquire a set of solar equipment and solar power project worth 50 million yen to 60 million yen.

Fast Retailing Co Ltd increased 1.5% to 34,820 yen after the casual clothing retailer said its Uniqlo brand total sales including online sales in May jumped 7.4%.

Same-store sales jumped 4.1% in May from the same month a year earlier.

The company said number of customers in the month fell 1.3% and the value of average purchases per customer climbed 5.5%.

Honda Motor Co Ltd slid 0.2% to 3,565 yen after the automobile company and its two local joint ventures sold 60,269 vehicles in China in May, an increase of 10.5%.

Japan Rental Housing Investments Inc closed unchanged at 77,300 yen and the rental accommodation property investor completed asset acquisition of Pregio Miyakojima for 16.10 billion yen.

Softbank Corp rose 0.3% to 7,817 yen on the media reports that the company is nearing a deal to acquire T-Mobile for $40 a share or $32 billion.

The deal will merge Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc controlled by Deutsche Telekom.

Separately, Softbank said it will start selling human-like robots for personal use by February 2015 for 198,000 yen or $1,900 at SoftBank mobile phone stores from this week.

Verite Co Ltd fell 1% to 98 yen and the operator of Pandora jewelry retail stores said total sales in the first-quarter ending in May was increased 78.9% and for the month of May jumped 85% compared to 72.4% surge in April.

Same store sales in the quarter increased 85.2% and for the month climbed 91.4% from 78.2% in April.