Toyota Trims Production; Chip Prices Rise

123jump.com Staff
06 Jan, 2009
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged higher on a rise in spot prices of computer chips and weakening yen. Toyota will lower production at 11 plants in the next two months. Prices of memory chips in Asian trading surged for the second day on expectations of lower than expected supply.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan edged higher on a rise in spot prices of computer chips and weakening yen. Toyota will lower production at 11 plants in the next two months.[/R]

Japan market averages traded higher on rising computer chip prices and on weakening yen.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 index gained 0.4% or 37.72 to 9,080.84, and the broader Topix Index soared 0.1% or 0.3 to 876.20.

Of the Nikkei 225 index tocks, 106 rose, 105 declined, and 14 were unchanged. OKI Electric Industries led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 15.8% followed by Sharp Corp. increasing 14.4% as the price of DRAM chips gained 1.3%.

Chip Prices Rise 1.3%

Dramexchange Technology, which is Asia''s biggest spot market for chips, reported today that prices for dynamic random access memory chips soared 1.3% today after rising 5.5% yesterday.

Sanyo Electric Co. to Cut 1,000 Jobs

Nikkei News reported today that Sanyo Electric will shed 1,000 jobs as part of a restructure program that will precede its acquisition by Panasonic Corp.

About 500 of its 20,000 regular employees in Japan will lose jobs in the semiconductor business.

Panasonic Corp. is expected to complete the acquisition of the company by March this year.

Sanyo''s semiconductor business had a group operating loss of 2.8 billion yen in its semiconductor business for the year through March 2008 and is expected to reduce the number of overseas semiconductor plants from seven to two.

Yen Falls

The yen weakened to 94.08 against the dollar from 92.03 at the end of trading yesterday.
Separately the Nikkei News noted that the yen''s nominal trade-weighted exchange rate rose by record 18.8 points from the previous month to 383.2 in December.

Gainers & Losers

OKI Electric Industries gained after Nikkei 225 index shares rose 15.8% followed by increases in Sharp Corp of 14.4%, in Kawasaki Heavy Industries of 11.2%, in Asahi Glass Co. of 11.1%, and Sumco Corp. of 10%.

Other chipmakers increased. Toshiba Corp. rose 9.4% and Sony advanced 7.6%.

Nippon Paper Group led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a drop of 8.1% followed by losses in Chuo Mitsui Trust of 6.6%, in OJI Paper of 6.4%, in Shionogi & Co. of 6.1%, and Isetan Mitsukoshi of 5.4%.

Paper companies dropped as crude oil prices for February delivery edged up 5.3% to $48.81 per barrel as Israel continued its ground onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

Company News

Toyota Motor Corp reported today that it will cut domestic output for 11 days in February and March as demand continues to plummet on deteriorating conditions in the global markets.