Japan Deficit, Weak Lending, Stocks Lower

123jump.com Staff
09 Mar, 2009
New York City

Japan current account deficit rises to 172.8 billion yen in January compared to surplus of 3.2 trillion yen a year ago period. Separately, bank lending dropped 3.8% in February but regional and smaller banks increased their lending. Realty stocks declined with Mitsui Fudosan dropping 8%.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo - Japan current account deficit rises to 172.8 billion yen in January. Japan’s bank lending falls to 3.8% in February.[/R]

Japan stock indexes plummeted the most in 26 years after the current account deficit increased to 172.8 billion yen in January, rising the most since 1985.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 index fell 1.2% or 87.07 to 7,086.03, and the broader Topix Index declined 1.5% or 10.86 to 710.53.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 17.3 billion shares worth 1.1 trillion yen were traded and in the second section 100 million shares valued at 1.3 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 74 rose, 137 declined, and 14 were unchanged. Tokai Carbon Co. led gainers in the index shares with a rise of 7.5% followed by Konami Corp. increasing 7.1%.

Current Account Deficit Soars in January

Ministry of finance reported today that current account deficit surged to 172.8 billion yen in January from a surplus of 3.2 trillion yen in the same period a year ago, soaring the most since comparable records began in 1985.

Economists had earlier forecasted that the deficit of 15.3 billion yen.

According to the finance ministry, exports dropped 46.3% to 3.2 trillion yen and imports shed 31.7% to 4.1 trillion yen.

Bank Lending Drops to 3.8% in February

Bank of Japan reported today that loans by banks, excluding those by credit associations, dropped to 3.8% in February from 4% the previous month.

Loans by city banks plunged to 3.2% from 3.6% a month earlier, while the total from regional banks and regional banks increased to 4.5% in February from 4.4% in January.

U.S. Unemployment Rises 8.1% in February

U.S. Department of Labor reported on Friday last week the non-farm payroll employment dropped by 651,000 and the unemployment rate increased to 8.1% in February from a month earlier.

Payroll employment has since dropped by 2.6 million in the past 4 months.

The statistics bureau noted that over the past twelve months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by about 5 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs increased by 716,000 to 7.7 million in February and climbed by 3.8 million in the last year.

In addition, the number of long-term unemployed jumped by 270,000 to 2.9 million in February.

Gainers & Losers

Tokai Carbon Co. led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 7.5% followed by rises in Konami Corp. of 7.1%, in Sumitomo Chemical Co. of 6.9%, in Sumitomo Electric Inc of 5.5%, and NSK Ltd. of 4.9%.

Crude oil prices gained 4.2% to $45.50 per barrel and gold prices advanced 1.6% to $942.7 per barrel. Inpex rallied 4.5%, Nippon Mining House increased 3.4% and Nippon Oil Corp gained 2.5%.

CSK Holdings Corp. led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a fall of 16.1%, in Takeda Pharmaceutical of 13.1%, in Sumco Corp. of 11.9%, in Sumitomo Realty of 9.1%, am Shinsei Bank of 8.8%.

Realty stocks fell after reports Japan’s bank lending plummeted to 3.8% in February. Mitsui Fudosan shed 8.2% and Tokyu Land Corp shed. 6.2%.