Earnings, Sentiment Lift Tokyo

123jump.com Staff
09 Aug, 2007
New York City

Market averages in Tokyo gained for the third day in a row on better than expected earnigs and weak yen lifting export sesitive stocks. Fast Retailing surged 10% after dropping its bid for Barneys New York. Oki Elecric led the Nikkei 225 stocks with a rise of 11%. Of the 225 stocks in the index, 144 gained and 79 declined. Japan Tobacco lifted its full year earnings forecast on recent acquisition. Shanghai gained 2%, Australia added 1%, and Thailand fell 2.3%.

[R]7:00AM New York, 8:00PM Tokyo – Market indexes in Tokyo climb for the third day tracking rises in New York. Strong earnings reports have lifted market sentiment.[/R]

Nikkei 225 index closed up 141.32 or 0.83% to 17,170.60 at close on strength in export sensitive stocks. Topix index increased 14.77 or 0.9% to close at 1,683.81. The trading on the first section of the exchange was heavy with 5.3 trillion yen value.

Of the 225 stocks in the index, 144 advanced, 79 declined, and 2 were unchanged.
Oki Electric led the index stocks with a gain of 11.5% followed by 10.5% rise in Fast Retailing, and 8% surge in Heiwa Real Estate and Toto Ltd. Nippon Soda led the decliners with a loss of 7.35% followed by 7% fall in Tosho Corporation, 6% decline in Kyowa Hakko, Nisshin Oil, and Meiji Dairies.

Arabic Oil Company known as AOC lifted its annual earnings forecast to 8 billion, up 60% from a year ago.

Weaker yen helped export sensitive stocks. Trend Micro surged 7% for the third day in a row after revising sales and earnings forecast for the current quarter. Citizen Holdings jumped 5% and Casio Computer surged 7%. Toshiba jumped 2.3%, Canon gained 1%, and Sony added 0.8%.

Real estate companies led the advancing stocks with 8.5% gain in Heiwa Real Estate, 7.3% gain in Mitsubishi UFJ, and 4.6% increase in Mitsui Sumitomo.

Yahoo Japan jumped 5.2%. The news report in the local press lifted Inpex Holdings 1.9%. The company is exploring LNG import terminal project in the northern Japan.

NTN Corp, Nippon Express, Japan Tobacco, and Kyocera fell 4% in the trading today.

Japan Tobacco reported its first quarter sales of 1.2 trillion yen, a decline of 5.4% from a year ago and net income fell 15.2% to 64.4 billion yen. Domestic sales fell 13% but international sales rose 25.3% limiting the net profit decline. The company revised its sales forecast for the year to 6.41 trillion yen from 4.89 trillion yen and net income was revised to 256 billion yen from 186 billion yen.

Fast Retailing soared 11% after the news that the company plans to drop its bid for the U.S. based retailer Barneys New York.

eAccess reported its earnings for the quarter ending in June 30. The earnings rose to 1,5 billion yen from 0.969 billion yen. Revenue jumped to 15 billion yen from 14.29 billion yen. The stocks surged 8% on the news.