Honda,Toyota Fall; JAL, N. Yusen Cargo Merger

Darlington Musarurwa
21 Aug, 2009
New York City

Stocks in Japan rebounded on the hopes that global economic recovery will take hold in the last quarter. Automakers declined after the U.S. ends rebate program for the new vehicles purchase. Japan Airlines and Nippon Yusen explore merger of cargo operations.

[R]9:00 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan rebounded on the hopes that global economic recovery will take hold in the last quarter. Automakers declined after the U.S. ends rebate program for the new vehicles purchase. Japan Airlines and Nippon Yusen explore merger of cargo operations.[/R]

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 145.21 or 1.40% to 10,238.20. Of the stocks in the index, 27 increased, 188 decreased and 10 were unchanged.

For the week the benchmark index declined 3.4% and the broader index Topix decreased 2.7%.

Yen closed at 94.31 against one dollar.

Gainers & Losers

Automakers declined after the U.S. plans to end the rebate program for the exchange of old vehicles for new on August 24. The statement from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that the in all $1.9 billion of rebates related transactions have been recorded.

Honda Motor Company dropped 4.1% to 2,955 yen, Toyota Motor declined 2.9% to 3,980 yen and Nissan Motor Company decreased 5.2% to 677 yen.

Nintendo Company decreased 3.2% to 23,690 yen to 3-year low after Sony lowered prices for its game console in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Nintendo is expected to release new version of Wii in less than four weeks.

After base and precious metals prices eased in Tokyo trading, metals and resource companies closed lower.

Mitsui Mining & Smelting Company decreased 4.6% to 269 yen and Sumitomo Metals decreased 3.4% 1,424 yen

Nippon Yusen closed unchanged at 399 yen and Japan Airlines closed unchanged at 168 yen after two companies are in talks to merge their cargo operations.

Fujitsu Ltd increased 0.96% to 625 yen after it tripled its estimate of profit to 95 billion yen and sold nearly the entire stake in Fanuc Ltd. Fanuc decreased 1.7% to 7,330 yen.

Fujitsu sold 12 million shares for 89 billion yen.

Fujitsu forecast Net to Rise 25%

Fujitsu Limited, the information technology company forecasts for full-year sales to rise 0.4% to ¥4.82 trillion from the previous estimate of ¥4.80 trillion. Net profit in the full-year estimated at ¥95 billion compared to net profit ¥25 billion.

The net income reflects the one-time gain from the sale of Fanuc Ltd stake.

Nikkei 200 Average Movers

JTEKT Corp led the decliners in the Nikkei 225 index of 6.4% followed by losses in Mitsumi Electric Co Ltd of 5.3%, in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd of 5.2%, in Nissan Motor Co Ltd of 5.1% and in NSK Ltd of 4.9%.

Ricoh Co Ltd led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index with a rise of 3.4% followed by gains in Sanyo Electric Co Ltd of 3.1%, in Nissan Chemical Industries Ltd of 2.6% and in West Japan Railway Co of 2.5%.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 145.21 or 1.40% to 10,238.20, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 129.84 or 0.64% to 20,199.02 and CSI 300 index in China higher 59.23 or 1.88% to 3,203.62. ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 86.90 or 1.99% to 4,290.60. The FTSE Bursa KL Composite index in Malaysia closed higher 0.36 or 0.03% to 1,163.79.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 4.59 or 0.29% to close at 1,580.98. SET index in Thailand closed higher 3.65 or 0.57% to 644.63 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 5.26 or 0.23% to 2,333.90. The Sensex index in India increased 228.51 or 1.52% to 15,240.83.