Nikkei Jumps 1.6%, Soft Bank Holds on to Alibaba Stake

Hiruki Nakamura
05 Oct, 2015
New York City

Nikkei average in Tokyo jumped 1.6% following the market advance in overnight trading in New York and in Europe. SoftBank has so far not decided to trim its stake in online marketplace operator Alibaba Group after the expiry of lock up period.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Nikkei average in Tokyo jumped 1.6% following the market advance in overnight trading in New York and in Europe. SoftBank has so far not decided to trim its stake in online marketplace operator Alibaba Group after the expiry of lock up period.[/R]

Markets in Tokyo surged following the rise in New York and in Europe and the yen strengthened.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 280.36 or 1.6% to 18,005.49 and the broader Topix index gained 19 or 1.3% to 1,463.92.

The yen strengthened to 120.24 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

ABC-Mart Inc jumped 2.7% to 7,230 yen after the self branded shoes retailer said total sales in September surged 16.8% and existing stores sales also soared 12.8% compared to the same period a year ago.

Oriental Land Co., Ltd soared 4.5% to 7,129 yen after the theme parks and hotels operator plans to relocate part of its head office in the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture to expand the theme park.

SoftBank Group Corporation soared 4.3% to 5,864 yen after the communication services provider decided not to trim its stake worth about 6.1 trillion yen in online market place Alibaba Group Holding Ltd after the expiry of lock up period.

Tokyo Electron Ltd gained 1.3% to 6,021 yen after the Nikkei daily reported the plasma etching equipment maker’s sales for the first-half ending in September to soar 20% to 350 billion yen and operating profit to surged 80% to 55 billion yen.

For the year ending March 2016, the company is likely to maintain its forecast of net profit to decline 8% to about 66 billion yen.

OSG Corporation increased 1.7% to 2,327 yen after the precision machine tools maker reported net sales in the third-quarter ending in August jumped 12.5% from a year ago to 83.82 billion yen.

Net income in the year soared 40.5% to 9.94 billion yen compared to 7.08 billion yen and diluted earnings per share rose to 95.50 yen from 67.98 yen.

The company forecasted net sales for the year to jump 11.6% to 112.80 billion yen and net income to surge 28.1% to 12.80 billion yen.