Stocks in Japan Five-Week Gains, Mitsubishi Lifts Alstom Offer

Hiruki Nakamura
20 Jun, 2014
New York City

Market indexes in Tokyo edged lower on Friday but extended gains for the fifth week in a row. The yen closed below 102 mark against the U.S. dollar. Mitsubishi Heavy and Siemens revised their combined bid to $19.9 billion for Alstom

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Market indexes in Tokyo edged lower on Friday but extended gains for the fifth week in a row. The yen closed below 102 mark against the U.S. dollar. Mitsubishi Heavy and Siemens revised their combined bid to $19.9 billion for Alstom’s energy business.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo closed lower and market indexes gained in the week and extended weekly rise after the U.S. Fed estimated low rate environment to continue in the near future and the prospect of global economic growth improved.

Despite the slowdown in China and struggling economies in the euro zone, Japanese companies are still looking for higher earnings in the current fiscal year.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 11.74 to 15,349.42 and the broader Topix index inched lower 0.12 to 1,268.92.

For the week, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.7% and the broader Topix gained 2% and advanced for the fifth week in a row, the longest stretch of increase in a year.

The yen strengthened and closed at 101.89 against one U.S. dollar.

Mitsubishi and Siemens Lifted Alstom business Offer

Siemens AG and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd lifted its cash portion of the offer for the energy business of Alstom SA, according to the statement released by the companies.

The cash portion is increased by 1.2 billion euros to 8.2 billion euros, Mitsubishi offered 3.9 billion euros for steam-turbine joint venture and Siemens would pay 4.3 billion euros for gas turbine business.

Stocks in Review

3-D Matrix Ltd plunged 6.2% to 4,490 yen after the medical products developer said net sales in the year ending in April jumped climbed 234.7% to 10.7 billion yen from 3.2 billion yen a year ago.

Net in the year widened to 1.52 billion yen compared to 978 million yen and loss per share increased to 77.77 yen from 52.63 yen a year earlier.

Fukuda Denshi Co.,Ltd slipped 1.3% to 5,850 yen after the medical electronic equipment maker reported net sales in the year ending in March jumped 11.8% to 107.57 billion yen from 96.24 billion yen a year ago period.

Net income in the year surged 16.7% 7.54 billion yen compared to 6.46 billion yen and earnings per share climbed to 515.60 yen from 415.47 yen a year earlier.

NEXT Co.,Ltd slumped 1.3% to 884 yen after the real estate developer said total sales in May dropped 7.4% to 11.60 billion yen from 12.53 billion yen a year earlier.

Sony Corporation slid 0.06% to 1,704 yen and shareholders criticized executives after the company announced losses for the second year in a row. Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai apologized forecasting a sixth loss in seven years.

The management promised to restructure money-losing businesses and targeted operating profit of 400 billion yen by the end of March 2016.