Seven-Month Low in Nikkei in Tokyo, Largest Weekly Loss in 17 Months

Hiruki Nakamura
04 Sep, 2015
New York City

Nikkei average declined more than 2% and extended weekly loss to 7% in the largest weekly drop since April 2014. The widely followed benchmark declined to a new seven-month low.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Nikkei average declined more than 2% and extended weekly loss to 7% in the largest weekly drop since April 2014. The widely followed benchmark declined to a new seven-month low.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo closed down and extended weekly loss in the Nikkei 225 Average to 7%.

Market indexes opened lower and in nervous trading export sensitive stocks sold off after the yen gained against the dollar.

Investors were wary ahead of the release of U.S. employment data and after the European Central Bank lowered its estimate of annual economic growth and inflation outlook.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 390.23 or 2.2% to 17,792.16 and the broader Topix index dropped 30.45 or 2.1% to 1,444.53.

For the week, Nikkei 225 plunged 7%.

The yen strengthened to 119.44 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

FujiFilm Holdings Corp dropped 1.5% to 4,720.50 yen after the diversified company intends to buy back shares between 35 million and 39 million, or as much as 6.4% of total issued shares outstanding for as much as 100 billion yen by March 2016.

The Nikkei news said FujiFilm forecasted sales for the year to jump 5% to 1.24 trillion yen and operating profit of 23% to 125 billion yen.

Hitachi, Ltd decreased 1.7% to 638.20 yen and the diversified company opened its first overseas railway car factory plant, in Newton Aycliffe, England with an estimated cost of 14.9 billion yen or £82 million to produce 35 railcars per month from November.

The company has already received 1,447 railcar orders in the U.K. worth about 600 billion yen a year.

The Kyodo News reported President Toshiaki Higashihara of Hitachi said its plans to complete the acquisition of Italy-based Finmeccanica S.p.A by the end of this year.

Separately, Hitachi and National Grid SA signed an agreement for reliable and secure supply of electric power systems in Saudi Arabia.

NGK Insulators Ltd plunged 4.6% to 2,494 yen after the company agreed to pay $65.3 million fine to the U.S. Justice Department and pleaded guilty to criminal charges for fixing the prices of parts supplied to automakers.

The department said that NGK conspired to price-fixing and bid-rigging schemes for ceramic substrate used in catalytic converters.

Sankyo Co., Ltd slipped 0.9% to 4,450 yen after the pachinko machines maker plans to buy back up to 4.70 million shares representing 5.49% of the total outstanding shares worth 20 billion yen before December 31.