Bank of Japan Reaffirms Stimulus Program

Hiruki Nakamura
15 Sep, 2015
New York City

The Bank of Japan left its stimulus program on hold after a 2-day meeting and retained the rate of money printing as announced before. Itoham Foods, the second largest food company in Japan is in merger talks with the seventh-largest food processor Yonekyu.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – The Bank of Japan left its stimulus program on hold after a 2-day meeting and retained the rate of money printing as announced before. Itoham Foods, the second largest food company in Japan is in merger talks with the seventh-largest food processor Yonekyu.[/R]

The Nikkei average closed higher after the Bank of Japan left its stimulus policy intact.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 60.78 or 0.3% to 18,026.48 and the broader Topix index slid 0.17 to 1,462.24.

The yen strengthened to 119.56 against a dollar.

Food companies rose on a news report that the second-largest meat processor, Itoham Foods is in merger talks with the seventh-largest Yonekyu.

The report was first published by the Nikkei business daily.

Stocks in Review

LIXIL Group Corporation closed unchanged at 2,634 yen after the sanitary equipment provider set the new mid-term strategy and forecasted to achieve total sales of 2 trillion yen by fiscal year ending in March 2018 and net income of about 100 billion yen.

The company estimated sales in water technology business for the fiscal 2018 at 703 billion yen and in housing technology segment of 591 billion yen.

The company forecasted sales in building technology business of about 374 billion yen and sales in kitchen technology business of 123 billion yen.

J. Front Retailing Co Ltd rose 0.2% to 1,824 yen after the department store operator said total sales in August soared 8.3% after rising 6.2% in July but from the 1.4% decrease in a year ago month.

The retailer said wholesale business segment sales in August plunged 8.2% compared to 10.1% surge in July and sales in department store business slipped 5.7% from 6.2% gain in previous month.

Nintendo Co., Ltd slipped 1.3% to 22,620 yen after the console game machines and software developer appointed Tatsumi Kimishima as new president and chief executive officer succeeding the late Satoru Iwata.

Takashimaya Company, Limited gained 0.6% to 953 yen after the department store operator said sales in August jumped 4% and sales at four regional stores in Okayama, Gifu, Yonago and Takasaki increased 3.9%.

Sales in the Western region surged 11.2% while sales in the Eastern region edged up 0.8% but total sales in the month advanced 4.8%.

Corporate segment sales soared 8% and sales from the cross-media business segment surged 19.5%.