Nikkei in Tokyo Slipped 0.6% in Defensive Trading

Hiruki Nakamura
16 Jun, 2015
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo closed down and the yen held near its recent lows in cautious trading. Sentiment weakened for the second day after talks between Greece and European lenders collapsed. Kao Corp, the cosmetic maker said first-half sales operating profit increased 3%.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo closed down and the yen held near its recent lows in cautious trading. Sentiment weakened for the second day after talks between Greece and European lenders collapsed. Kao Corp, the cosmetic maker said first-half sales operating profit increased 3%.[/R]

Stocks were on decline in Tokyo after talks between Greece and European lenders collapsed and market sentiment weakened in the euro zone and in New York.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 129.85 or 0.6% to 20,257.94 and the broader Topix index fell 12.06 to 1,639.86.

The yen closed at 123.57 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

Dentsu Inc decreased 1.1% to 6,080 yen after the advertising and marketing company agreed to acquire U.K.-based eCommera Global Limited. The agency has established development centres in Bulgaria and India.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.

Fujitsu General Limited dropped 2.1% to 1,594 yen after the Nikkei news said air-conditioning equipment maker forecasted operating profit in the year ending March 2018 to climb 9% to 25 billion yen from fiscal 2015.

Kao Corporation fell 0.7% to 5,940 yen after the cosmetics, skincare and hair care products maker forecasted operating profit for the first-half ending in June to increase 3% to 51 billion yen and net sales climb 5% to approx 700 billion yen.

For the year, Kao forecasted net sales to jump 5% to 1.47 trillion yen and operating profit to surge 13% to 150 billion yen.

Square Enix Holdings Co Ltd jumped 2.9% to 2,956 yen after the digital gaming maker launched preview conference for its new version of “Final Fantasy” at Sony Computer Entertainment of America LLC, in Los Angeles.

The game first released in 1997 sold 11 million copies worldwide and from 1987 it sold more than 110 million units.