Toshiba Revises Loss Estimate Sharply Higher, Nikkei Eases 0.4%

Hiruki Nakamura
21 Dec, 2015
New York City

The Nikkei 225 average extended Friday losses after oil prices continued to dip and Toshiba sharply escalated its estimate of fiscal year losses. Domestic supermarket sales in November declined 1%. Osaka Gas plans to withdraw from its thermal power project with Marubeni Corp.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – The Nikkei 225 average extended Friday losses after oil prices continued to dip and Toshiba sharply escalated its estimate of fiscal year losses. Domestic supermarket sales in November declined 1%. Osaka Gas plans to withdraw from its thermal power project with Marubeni Corp.[/R]

Nikkei average in Japan closed lower on Monday amid ongoing concerns about the persistent decline oil prices and on worries that Japanese companies may struggle to increase exports.

Domestic supermarket sales in November dropped 1% from the year ago month, the Chain Store Association said.

Toshiba led the decliners after reporting staggering loss in the current fiscal year.

Toshiba said it is likely to reduce 10,600 jobs and may report a record loss of 550 billion yen after overstating its operating profit for the past six years by 152 billion yen.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 70.78 or 0.4% to 18,916.02 and the broader Topix index decreased 5.82 to 1,531.28.

The yen dropped against the dollar to 121.34.

Stocks in Review

Nomura Holdings Inc slumped 1.5% to 685.70 yen on the news that the financial and brokerage firm plans to acquire 40% of the U.S.-based asset management company American Century Investments for about $1 billion.

Next Co., Ltd slipped 0.8% to 1,440 yen after the real estate developer said revenues in November surged 52.9% to 2.1 billion yen and revenues in online information services segment soared 17.9% to 1.49 billion form a year ago.

Osaka Gas Co Ltd fell 0.4% to 425.30 yen on reports that the gas distributor may withdraw from its thermal power project with Marubeni Corporation worth 30 billion yen.

Panasonic Corporation dropped 2.7% to 1,214.50 yen on reports that the company is looking to acquire the U.S. refrigerator-systems maker Hussmann Corp. for 150 billion yen.

Toshiba Corp plunged 9.8% to 254.80 yen after the diversified technology conglomerate said it expects net loss to increase to 550 billion yen in fiscal year ending March 2016 from a loss of 38 billion the previous year.

The company blamed to sharp increase in loss on restructuring costs and deterioration in its semiconductor and infrastructure businesses.

Sales are expected to decline 6.8% to 6.2 trillion yen.

As part of the restructuring, Toshiba will cut or relocate about 10,600 employees, or 5% of its global workforce,