Nikkei in Japan Fails to Participate Asia-Rally on China Stimulus

Hiruki Nakamura
17 Sep, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Japan closed lower for the second day and the Topix index declined for the first time after rising for six days in a row. China

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan closed lower for the second day and the Topix index declined for the first time after rising for six days in a row. China’s Premier Xi Jinping arrived in India and finalize talks on setting up trade zones and increase infrastructure investment.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo declined for the second day in a row and the broader Topix index edged down after gaining for five days in a row.

Markets in Asia gained higher after China announced a surprise move to pump 500 billion yen or $81 billion in its banking system.

The People’s Bank of China is expected to pump 100 billion yen in five largest bank over the next three-month period, according to a senior official at the central bank.

The additional credit is expected to ward off the coming liquidity crunch in the next few weeks and is also likely to spur off more lending to bolster industrial production. However, banks in China are addicted to property lending.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 22.86 to 15,888.67 and the broader Topix index slid 5.90 to 1,304.96.

The yen declined to close at 107.25 against one U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation rose 0.6% to 1,225 yen after the automobile company plans to build a new auto assembly plant in Indonesia with an estimated investment of $600 million.

Pioneer Corp slipped 1.6% to 314 yen after the electronic products maker plans to sell off its disc-jockeying audio equipment unit Pioneer DJ to US-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP for about 59 billion yen or $550 million.

Sony Corp dropped 1.8% to 2,123.50 yen after the diversified conglomerate forecasted annual net loss may widened to 230 billion yen from the earlier estimate of 50 billion yen, mainly due to impairment charge of 180 billion yen in the mobile communications segment during the second-quarter.

The company maintained its estimate of fiscal year operating revenue of about 7.8 trillion yen, 0.4% increase from a year ago.