Machinery Orders Increase in Japan, Stocks Fall

123jump.com Staff
10 Dec, 2009
New York City

Machinery orders in Japan increased 3.2% in October and orders fell 4.5% excluding volatile power machinery orders. The Bank of Japan plans to offer short term lending of 800 billion yen and accept government bonds as collateral.

[R]5:00 AM New York, 7:00 PM – Machinery orders in Japan increased 3.2% in October and orders fell 4.5% excluding volatile power machinery orders. The Bank of Japan plans to offer short term lending of 800 billion yen and accept government bonds as collateral.[/R]

Japan stock indexes dropped despite October machinery orders increased. Investors worried a sliding dollar will affect exports and hurt corporate earnings. Commodity stocks also declined.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.4% or 141.9 to 9,862.882, and the broader Topix Index decreased 1.3% to 873.90.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 20.8 billion shares valued at 1.4 trillion yen were traded and in the second section 492 million shares worth 5.4 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 30 rose, 188 dropped, and 7 were unchanged. Sanyo Electric led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 10.7% followed by Teijin Ltd. soaring 3.6%.

Machinery Orders Increase 3.2%

Japan’s cabinet office reported today the total value of machinery orders received by 280 manufacturers operating in Japan increased by 3.2% to 1.7 trillion yen in October from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Orders advanced 10.4% to 5 trillion yen in the September quarter and are projected to drop 1.1% to 5 trillion yen in the fourth quarter.

Private sector machinery orders, excluding volatile ones for ships and those from electric power companies, decreased 4.5% to 704 billion yen in October from 738 billion yen a month earlier.

In the three months to September private sector machinery orders dropped 0.9% to 2.1 trillion yen, but orders are projected to rise 1% to 2.1 trillion yen in the December quarter.

According to the report, manufacturing orders advanced 25.4% to 294 billion yen from a loss of 0.1% or 234 billion the previous month. Orders also declined 8.7% to 693 billion yen in the September quarter and are projected to soar 0.4% to 695 billion yen in the three months ending December.

Non-manufacturing machinery orders slid 17.3% to 426 billion yen in October from 515 billion yen the previous month. Orders also edged up 4.9% to 1.4 trillion yen and gain 1.3% to 1.41 trillion yen.

Government orders dropped 14.4% to 205 billion yen from 240 billion yen a month ago. In the three months ended September orders jumped 11.4% to 842 billion yen, but dropped 10.8% to 751 billion yen in the three months ended December.

BoJ Offers 800 billion yen

Nikkei News reported today Bank of Japan has offered to provide 800 billion worth of three-month funds at 0.1%, through a new lending facility that will be announced this month.

The central bank will accept government and corporate bonds, commercial paper and loans on deeds as collateral.

Gainers & Losers

Sanyo Electric led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index stocks with a rise of 10.7% followed by gains in Teijin Ltd of 3.6%, in Toyo Seikan of 2.8%, in Oki Electric Industries of 2.7%, in Nippon Express of 2.3%.

Automakers gained as the yen fell against the dollar. Isuzu Motors dropped 4.2% to 160 yen.

Suzuki Motors led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index stocks with a drop of 6.5% followed by losses in Inpex Corp. of 5.3%, in Japan Airlines of 5.6%, in Minebea Co. Ltd of 4.8%, and Denki Kagaku of 4.4%.

Inpex fell as crude oil prices tumbled 2.7% to $70.70 per barrel.