Japan Finance Minister Resigns; Yen Firm

Mayank Mehta
05 Jan, 2010
New York City

Finance Minister of Japan Hirohisa Fujii has resigned from the government as he battles poor health. The yen traded near its recent lows and stocks held their grounds ahead of the earnings season next week. Yucheng Technologies and NTT Data to build banking network in China.

[R]8:00 AM Tokyo, Japan – Finance Minister of Japan Hirohisa Fujii has resigned from the government as he battles poor health. The yen traded near its recent lows and stocks held their grounds ahead of the earnings season next week. Yucheng Technologies and NTT Data to build banking network in China. Orix plans to invest $3 billion in Chinese firms.[/R]

Stocks in Japan edged higher as the yen traded near its four months low and ahead of earnings season next week.

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 27.04 or 0.25% to 10,681.83 and of the stocks in the index 144 increased, 67 declined and 14 closed unchanged.

The yen hovered near 91.73 to a dollar.

Honda Motor Corp edged ahead of Chrysler to be the fourth largest automaker in the U.S. after it sold 1.15 million vehicles in 2009. U.S. auto sales in 2009 decreased 21% to 10.4 million after falling 18% in 2008. Toyota retained number two position in the U.S. following General Motors.


Fujii Resignation

Prime Minister Hatoyama has agreed to accept resignation of Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii after he suffered from poor health according to Kyodo News report. Fujii of 77 years of age was treated for high blood pressure and exhaustion last week.

Democratic Party of Japan lacks candidates that have experience and widely respected. Fujii has been finance minister in 1993 and was a budget examiner prior to that.

Nikkei Movers

Clarion Co Ltd led the decliners in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a loss of 4.1% followed by losses in Fast Retailing Co Ltd of 3.2%, in Nisshin Seifun Group Inc of 2.7%, in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd 2.6% and in Nippon Soda Co., Ltd 2.3%.

Nippon Oil Corp led gainers in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a rise of 7.3% followed by gains in Nippon Mining Holdings Inc 7.2%, in Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd of 6.1% and in Mitsui Chemicals, Inc of 4.5%.

Other Movers

Amada Co the maker of steel-sheet processing machinery added 2.5% to ¥609.00.

Elpida Memory, Inc the computer memory-chip maker climbed 6.6% to ¥1,608.00.

Japan Airlines Corporation rose 2.2% to ¥90.00 after it surged more than 30% in the previous session after state controlled bank doubled its credit line to 200 billion yen.

JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc fell 2.2% to ¥43.00 after the audio and car electronics maker announced that it has set up a committee to review the performance of the company.

Megane Top Co the eyeglass retailer rose 3.5% to ¥1,050.00.

Nisshin Seifun Group Inc fell 2.7% to ¥1,238.00 after the flour maker was downgraded to “neutral” from “outperform” by Credit Suisse Group.

NTT Data Corp advanced 2.4% to ¥298,100.00 after the network services company and Yucheng Technologies Limited will form a joint venture to develop electronic banking business in China.

Orix Corp gained 4.4% to ¥6,590.00 and the financial services company plans to invest ¥300 billion or $3.2 billion in Chinese firms providing financial and infrastructure services over the next three years.

Yamazaki Baking Co dropped 2.2% to ¥1,074.00 after the producer of bread and cakes was downgraded to “neutral” from “outperform” at Credit Suisse Group.