Tokyo Stocks Fall on Sony, Toyota Outlook

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

Sony estimated first annual loss in fourteen years demand for games, electronics and entertainment products fall. Samsung in Korea also reported weak outlook for memory chips. The benchmark index in Tokyo trading dropped 3.8%. Toyota will cut full time staff for the first time in sixty years.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan fell after Sony estimated annual loss in the current fiscal year, first in 14 years.[/R]

The benchmark stock index in Japan declined 3.8% as weak profit outlook from Sony and Samsung dragged tech sector lower.

Sony Corp. lowered its fiscal profit forecast for the year ending March 31, 2009 to a loss of 150 billion yen from the October projection of a profit 150 billion yen, which is the first loss in 14 years.

Profit in the electronics segment is expected to be 350 billion yen lower that the earlier projection.

Operating income is equally expected to be lower in the game segment, pictures segment, and financial services segment by 30 billion yen, 13 billion yen and 65 billion yen respectively.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 index fell 3.8% or 306.49 to 7,745.25, falling 5.9% for the week, and the broader Topix Index declined 2.8% or 22.36 to 773.55, dropping 5.4% in the week.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 7.4 billion shares worth 483 billion yen were traded and in the second section 136 million shares worth 1.1 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 9 rose, 213 declined, and 3 were unchanged. Nippon Soda Co. led gainers in the index shares with a rise of 2.9%.

Toyota Mulls Cutting 1,000 Jobs

Nikkei News reported today that Toyota Motor Corp is considering shedding 1,000 full times jobs in United States and U.K. as part of a cost restructure in the wake of falling demand.

The lay off of full time staff will be the first time in six decades since 1950 when Toyota laid off 1,600 staff.

Toyota employs 36,000 full-time workers in North America and about 5,000 full-time staff in the United Kingdom.

The carmaker is forecasting that it will realize its first operating loss in 70 years.

Nippon Steel to Cut Output by 40%

The online edition also reported that Nippon Steel Corp. will reduce its crude steel output by 40% or 3 million tons in the quarter to March to 5 million tons.

Total output cuts for the fiscal first half to March are expected to increase to 4 million tons.

Gainers & Losers

Nippon Soda Co. led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 2.9% followed by increases in Nippon Telegraph of 2.8%, in Secom Co. Ltd of 2.5%, in Mitsubishi Rayon Co. of0.9%, and All Nippon Airways of 0.6%.

Clarion Co. Ltd. led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a fall of 14.9% followed by losses in Meidensha Corp. of 9.9%, in Tokyo Electron of 9.3%, in NTT Data Corp. of 8.9%, and Furukawa Electric of 8.8%.

Consumer electronic companies fell on loss forecast at Sony. Sharp dropped 7.6% and Nikon Corp shed 7.4%.

Steelmakers declined as Nippon Steel said it will cut production by 40% in the quarter to March. JFE Holdings dipped 7.9% and Japan Steel plummeted 7.2%.

Samsung Q4 Loss Tops 90 billion won

Samsung reported today that it realized a loss of 90 billion won in the three months to December, the first quarterly loss since 2000.

DRAM demand continued to be sluggish in the period and spot prices are down nearly 50% from a year ago.