Japan Auto Sales Rise; Seven & I Cuts Net

Darlington Musarurwa
01 Sep, 2009
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged higher after the release of auto sales and expectations of higher sales at chipmakers. Seven & I Holdings lowered its annual earnings estimate by 11.4%. Toyota reported first monthly sales increase in 13 months as August sales increase 2.3%.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo – Stocks in Japan edged higher after the release of auto sales and expectations of higher sales at chipmakers. Seven & I Holdings lowered its annual earnings estimate by 11.4%. Toyota reported first monthly sales increase in 13 months as August sales increase 2.3%.[/R]

In Tokyo trading the Nikkei 225 index gained 0.4% or 37.53 to 10,530.06, and the broader Topix Index advanced 0.3% to 968.77.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 16.5 billion shares worth 1.2 trillion yen were traded and in the second section 349 billion shares valued at 7.3 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 124 rose, 84 dropped, and 17 were unchanged. Sumco Corp. led gainers in the index shares with a rise of 10% followed by Alps Electric Co. increasing 6.1%.

Japan Auto Sales Rise 2.3% in August

Japan Automobile Dealers Association reported today that sales of cars, trucks and buses jumped 2.3% to 198,265 units in August.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. led auto sales with Toyota monthly sales increasing for the first time in 13 months.

Toyota sales soared 9% to 90,802 units, while Honda sales advanced 13% and Nissan Motor Co. fell 1.4%.

JAMA forecasts domestic sales are expected to decline 8.5% to 4.3 million vehicles for the year ending March.

Seven & I Holdings Cuts Profit Forecasts 11.4%

Seven & I Holdings lowered its fiscal year ending February 2010 profit estimate by 11.4% to 109 billion yen from an earlier estimate in July. Sales are now estimated to ease 2.5% to 5.18 trillion yen.

Net income in the six months of the year ended August dropped 35% to 44 billion yen and sales declined 10% to 2.57 trillion yen from 2.86 trillion from the same period a year ago.

Yen Rises 0.6%

The yen rose 0.6% to 93.36 against the yen from 93.38 a year ago.

Gainers & Losers

Chipmakers gained after the Nikkei News said Toshiba’s semiconductor business will likely have an operating profit in the September quarter. Toshiba Corp. soared 2.7% and Nikon Corp. jumped 4.3%.

Elpida Memory Inc increased 5.6% to 1,537 yen after the largest Japanese chip memory maker plans to raise as much as 78.5 billion yen. Less than 10% of shares are expected to be sold to domestic investors and are expected to be priced at a discount between 6% and 7% to Tuesday’s closing price.

Shipmakers fell. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines tumbled 2% and Kawasaki Kisen plunged 1.5%.

After the release of auto sales, Honda Motor Company increased 1.2% to 2,970 yen, Toyota Motor increased 0.8% to 4,020 yen and Nissan increased 2% to 663 yen.

Front Retailing increased 4.4% to 550 yen and Isetan Mitsukoshi increased 1.7% to 1,044 yen. Seven & I Holdings decreased 0.9% to 2,230 yen.

Nikkei 200 Average Movers

Fast Retailing Co Ltd led the decliners in the Nikkei 225 index of 2.7% followed by losses in Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd of 2.0%, in Taiheiyo Cement Corp of 1.8%, in Shionogi & Co Ltd of 1.7% and in Taiyo Yuden Co Ltd of 1.7%.

Sumco Corp led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index with a rise of 10.0% followed by gains in Alps Electric Co Ltd of 6.0%, in Showa Denko KK of 5.4% and in Fuji Electric Holdings Co Ltd of 4.4%.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 37.53 or 0.36% to 10,530.06, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 148.11 or 0.75% to 19,872.30 and CSI 300 index in China higher 13.43 or 0.47% to 2,843.70. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 35.50 or 0.79% to 4,514.60. The FTSE Bursa KL Composite index in Malaysia closed lower 2.99 or 0.25% to 1,171.28.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 31.21 or 1.96% to close at 1,623.06. SET index in Thailand closed higher 0.87 or 0.13% to 654.12 and JSE Index in Indonesia decreased 14.62 or 0.62% to 2,326.91. The Sensex index in India decreased 115.45 or 0.74% to 15,551.19.