Yahoo Japan, NTT DoCoMo Rise

123jump.com Staff
28 Jul, 2008
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged higher on a rise in commodities related stocks. Yahoo Japan reported 18% rise in earnings and gained 4% in trading. Honda lowered its earnings outlook on higher raw materials costs and Toyota Motor Corp lowered its annual sales outlook by 3.6% to 9.85 million units and production estimate by 4.5% to 9.5 million vehicles. Tokyo Electric Power estimated annual loss of 280 billion yen and increase rates by 12%.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo - Yahoo! Japan Corp jumps 4% on 18% rise in earnings. NTT DoCoMo Inc gains ahead of its earnings release.[/R]

Stocks in Japan rose fractionally on the back on strong earnings by Yahoo! Japan Corp. and domestic-industries related stocks that are relatively insulated from the current turmoil on the global credit market. Commodity stocks rose as metal prices increased.

Market Sentiment

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 rose 0.14% or 19.02 at 13,353.78, and the broader Topix Index advanced 0.2% or 2.51 at 1,300.79.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 7.4 billion shares worth 794 billion yen were traded and in the second section 118 million shares valued at 2.6 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index shares 129 rose, 86 declined and 10 were unchanged. Mitsui & Co led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 5.69% on rising metal prices.

Yahoo! Japan Profit Rises 18%

Yahoo! Japan Corp reported today that net income in the first quarter ended June increased 18.2% to 19.1 billion yen as revenues gained 15.6% on the year to 65.5 billion yen, boosted by advertising revenue.

In the review period, advertising sales of the Search Business & Overture K.K., media business, services, social network and auction business advanced 64%, 11%, 9%, 3% and 3% correspondingly.

The company managed to grow revenues in the advertising business through targeting advertising to users according to their past history of internet usage.

Company in its accompanying statement said, “Tough business conditions might continue for a while. Although the display advertising and recruiting business are facing challenged conditions for cyclical reasons, we will try to grow them with growth in paid search advertising and Yahoo! Premium membership. We forecast second quarter revenues will be the same as the first quarter.”

Share Buybacks Increase 7%

The Nikkei News reported today that the amount of share repurchases conducted by listed companies in the first six months of the year rose 7% from a year ago to 2 trillion yen.

Gainers & Losers

Mitsui & Co led advancers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 5.7% followed by increases in Fast Retailing of 5.5%, in OKI Electric Industries of 4.40%, in Chugai Pharmaceutical Co of 4.36%, and Yahoo! Japan Corp of 4.25%.

Mitsui & Co and other commodity stocks rose after metal prices increased. Copper prices rose 0.8% and gold prices advanced 0.5%. Mitsubishi Corp edged up 2.61% and Nippon Mining jumped 2.27%.

Yahoo! Japan Corp. gained 4.25% to 41,700 yen after the company reported that first quarter profit gained 18.2% to 19.1 billion yen on strong advertising revenues. KBC Securities also raised his rating of the stock to “buy” from “hold”.

NTT DoCoMo Inc. rose 2.3% to 165,600 yen ahead of its quarterly earnings results. Nomura estimate a rise in profit of 30% to 250 billion yen.

NGK Insulators led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a drop of 7.07% followed by losses in Advantest Corp of 6.06%, in Tokyo Electron of 4.72%. in Hino Motors of 4.09%, and Kawasaki Kisen of 3.70%.

NGK Insulators dropped after the Nikkei newspaper said the company will slash domestic production of diesel engine filters due to slowing demand.

Advantest Corp fell as it reported that it recorded a first quarter loss of 0.2 billion yen after orders slumped 49.2% from the previous quarter at 18.2 billion yen. Sales in Japan declined 33.6%, while those in South Korea and Taiwan slipped 48.1% and 40.3% correspondingly.

Other tech-stocks fell as well. Toshiba plummeted 1.88% and Nikon Corp plunged 2.19%.

Automaker slipped as Honda Motor Co said it expects operating profit for the year ending March 31 to fall 3.1% to 630 billion yen on high raw material costs and a weaker outlook for truck sales. Mazda declined 1.28% as a result.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 19.02 or 0.14% to 13,353.78, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 53.50 or 0.24% closed to 22,687.21. ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 48.40 or 0.97% to close 4,922.10. The KL Composite index in Malaysia increased 14.34 or 1.26% closed to 1,156.09.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 0.36 or 0.02% to close at 1,598.29, SET index in Thailand closed higher 0.06 or 0.01% to 685.53 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 30.33 or 1.35% to 2,275.68. The Sensex index in India increased 74.17 or 0.52% to 14,349.11.