Tokyo Investors Focus on Earnings

123jump.com Staff
31 Jul, 2007
New York City

Nikkei edged a fraction lower but for the month declined 5%. Unemployment in June declined to 3.7% from 3.8% in May. Investors shifted their focus to earnings from the volatility in the global markets. Nikon surged 5% and reprted net revenue gain of 29% after the close. Olympus surged 6% after reporting 147% rise in earnings. Mitsubishi Corp jumped 5% after the revenue increased 12% and earnings declined 18%.

[R]7:00AM New York, 8:00PM Tokyo – Earnings results drive market sentiment in Tokyo trading.[/R]

Nikkei 225 dropped 0.23% or 40.41 to close at 17,249.89 finishing the moth with a loss of 5%. A day after election market switched its focus to local earnings and regional trends. The positive close in New York helped averages in the morning hours.

June unemployment fell to 3.7% from 3.8% in May and total monthly wages fell 1.1% from a year ago. The report also showed that available jobs to the number of applicants ratio increased to 1.07 from 1.06 in May. In a separate report, the government also reported that the overall household spending in the month gained 0.1%, lower than expected rise of 0.7%. Last week, the government reported that June retail sales fell 0.4% and supermarket sales keep declining for 18 consecutive months.

Gainers

Nikon surged 5.5% ahead of earnings report. The company reported after the close first quarter earnings rise of 59% and net revenue gain of 29.4%. The company reported net revenue of 223.54 billion yen and earnings of 2.34 billion yen. For the year company guided revenue gain of 13% and 15.3% in the first half of the year. The earnings are expected to rise 33.7% and 13.1% in the similar periods.

Earnings News

Shinsei Bank reported earnings rise of 63% to 31.2 billion yen.

Olympus jumped 6% to 4,910 yen after reporting earnings 17.6 billion from 7.12 billion yen from a year ago. The company reported net sales increase of 17.2% to 264 billion yen from 225.4 billion yen from a year ago. The earnings gained 147.4% to 17.6 billion yen from 7.12 billion yen fro a year ago.

Mitsubishi Corp gained 5% to 3,540 after it reported first quarter earnings. The company net revenue increased to 5.46 trillion of yen from 4.877 trillion yen and earnings declined to 115 billion yen from124 billion yen. The revenue jumped 12% and gross profit increased 1.8% but net profit declined 8% on lower sales price in Australian coking coal business.

Decliners

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries declined 4% to 843 yen after reporting first quarter earnings of 17 billion yen from 9.2 billion yen a year ago. The net sales in the first quarter increased to 685 billion yen, up 17.1% from 585.5 billion yen. The net income and earnings per share jumped 83.6%. For the fiscal year 2007 ending in March 2008 company guided revenue of 3.1 trillion and net income of 54 billion.

Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Metals, JFE Holdings said that the companies are investigated for a possible price fixing violations.