Nikkei Plunges 3.2% in Short Trading Week, Toyota Net Surges 19%

Hiruki Nakamura
08 May, 2015
New York City

Shares in Tokyo struggled to advance on mixed earnings report and weak international trade data from China. Toyota annual net soared 19% on 6% increase in sales. Fast Retailing April sales surged 20%. Mitsui & Co annual net plunged 13%. Olympus net in the fiscal year swung to a loss.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Shares in Tokyo struggled to advance on mixed earnings report and weak international trade data from China. Fast Retailing April sales surged 20%. Mitsui & Co annual net plunged 13%. Olympus net in the fiscal year swung to a loss.[/R]

Market indexes in Tokyo struggled to advance on the lack of economic news and weak international back drop and mixed corporate earnings.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 87.20 or 0.5% to 19,379.19 and the broader Topix index rise 13.12 to 1,587.76.

For the truncated week, Nikkei declined 3.2%.

The yen closed at 120 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

Fast Retailing Co Ltd edged up 0.03% to 47,120 yen after the operator of Uniqlo clothing stores reported total sales including online sales surged 19.8% in April and same-store sales in the month soared 19.3% while sales at directly-run stores climbed by 19.2% from a year ago month.

Hitachi, Ltd increased 0.9% to 822.90 yen after the diversified conglomerate plans to increase its research and development budget to about 500 billion yen in fiscal year 2016.

Mitsui & Co Ltd gained 1.4% to 1,684 yen after the trading conglomerate reported revenues in the fiscal year ending in March declined 5.7% to 5.40 trillion yen from 5.73 trillion yen in a year ago period.

Net income in the year plunged 12.5% to 306.49 billion yen compared to 350.09 billion yen and diluted earnings per shared dropped to 170.95 yen from 192.21 yen in the same period a year ago.

The company forecasted net profit of about 240 billion yen in the year ending in March 2016 and earnings per share of about 133.89 yen.

Olympus Corporation slipped 0.7% to 4,220 yen after the medical endoscopes maker reported net sales in the year ending in March climbed 7.2% to 764.67 billion yen from 713.29 billion yen in a year ago period.

Net in the fiscal year swung to a loss of 8.74 billion yen compared to profit of 13.63 billion yen and diluted loss per share swung to a 25.53 yen from diluted earnings per share of 41.05 yen in the same period a year ago.

Showa Denko K.K jumped 2.4% to 170 yen after the petrochemical refiner stated net sales in the first-quarter ending in March plunged 16.5% to 193.2 billion yen from 209.6 billion yen in a year ago period.

Net in the quarter swung to a loss of 7.53 billion yen compared to profit of 945 million yen and diluted loss per share swung to a 5.27 yen from diluted earnings per share of 0.63 yen in the same period a year ago.

Toyota Motor Corp increased 0.8% to 8,279 yen after the automaker reported net revenues in the year ending in March climbed 6% to 27.23 trillion yen from 25.69 trillion yen in a year ago period.

Net income in the year surged 19.2% to 2.17 trillion yen compared to 1.82 trillion yen and diluted earnings per shared jumped to 687.66 yen from 574.92 yen in the same period a year ago.

The company forecasted net revenues for the year ending in March 2016 to increase 1% to 27.50 trillion yen and net profit to jump 3.5% to 2.25 trillion yen.

For the fiscal year ending March 2016, Toyota estimated consolidated vehicles sales of 8.9 million units.

The automaker said it plans to repurchase up to 300 billion yen of common stock.