Japan Indexes in 4-day Rally, Toyota and Honda U.S. Sales Advance

Hiruki Nakamura
03 Dec, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo advanced for the fourth day in a row and the Topix index closed at a high not seen since 2008. Toyota and Honda gained after the U.S. sales in November were ahead of expectations. Nissan sales lagged.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo advanced for the fourth day in a row and the Topix index closed at a high not seen since 2008. Toyota and Honda gained after the U.S. sales in November were ahead of expectations. Nissan sales lagged.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo extended gains for the fourth day in a row and the wider Topix index closed at a new high not seen since 2008.

Auto makers were in focus after the U.S. November auto sales increased 4.6%, according to the data released by the industry research organization Autodata Corp based in New Jersey.

U.S. sales of Toyota increased 3% and Honda Motor sales jumped 4.6%. Nissan sales decreased 3.1%.

Toyota stock advanced 0.91% to 7,592 yen, the best level since 2007 and Honda gained 0.7% to 3,652 yen. Nissan stock eased 0.6% to 1,102 yen.

The service index measured by the PMI index for November climbed to 50.6 from 48.7 a month earlier and composite PMI in November jumped to 51.2 compared to 49.5 in October, a survey from Markit Economics showed.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 57.21 or 0.3% to 17,720.43 and the broader Topix index added 1.90 to 1,429.75.

The yen rose 0.2% to 119.43 against one dollar.

Stocks in Review

Monex Group, Inc increased 2.4% to 303 yen after the online securities service provider said trading volume activity in November jumped 5.5% to $55.4 billion compared to $52.4 billion in October.

In addition, the company consolidates its subsidiaries Monex FX Inc and Monex Inc.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp climbed 3.5% to 318.70 yen after the steel producer and Kobe Steel Ltd plans to reduce stakes in each other to raise funds for oversea expansion.

The company said in a statement “we are going to sell about 50% of 214.69 million shares of Kobe Steel and Kobe Steel will also schedule to take a similar step in our company.”

Nippon Steel reported that it will sell shares worth about 22 billion yen of Kobe Steel and reduced the stake. Kobe Steel will also sell shares valued at about 21.5 billion yen in Nippon Steel and cut by half its current stake of around 0.7%.

Takata Corporation jumped 3% to 1,377 yen after the automobile airbag maker said it will form its own independent quality assurance panel to audit and prepare a report of manufacturing procedures.

The company refused to comply with the U.S. government’s demand to expand the recall of faulty air bags.