Shipper Rise in Tokyo; Indexes Flat

Darlington Musarurwa
15 Mar, 2010
New York City

Japan

[R]5:00 AM New York, 7:00 PM Tokyo - Japan’s consumer confidence rises for the second month in February. New condo supply soars 10.7% in February. Stocks in Tokyo ended flat ahead of a two-day meeting of the Bank of Japan beginning tomorrow. Shipping companies traded higher tracking the gains in the freight rate index.[/R]

Japanese stock indexes ended flat as investors focused on the new financial services ranking regulation bill proposed by U.S. lawmakers and ahead of the Bank of Japan two day meeting beginning tomorrow.

The U.S. lawmakers are looking to regulate large banks and financial companies with at least $50 billion in assets to evaluate the risks they pose to financial system. The move widely anticipated after the largest non-bank financial services came close to bringing down the U.S. financial system and dragged world economy into a recession.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.01% or 0.72 to 10,751.98, and the broader Topix Index edged up 0.3% to 938.91.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 9.7 billion yen worth 577 billion yen were traded and in the second section 179 million shares valued at 2.2 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 119 gained, 87 fell, and 19 were unchanged. Fuji Electric House led gainers in the index shares with a rise of 8.9% followed by Shinsei Bank jumping 6%.

New Condo Supply Soars 10.7% in Feb

Japan’s research agency, Real Estate Economic Institute said today the number of new condominiums put for sale in the greater Tokyo area rose 10.7% to 2,777 units in February, rising for the first time in three months.

REIT noted that of the total condominiums put on the market in Tokyo and Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, 70.7% found buyers, which is 9 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

However, in Osaka and five surrounding prefectures, the new condo supply fell 7% to 1,439 units.

Japan’s Consumer Confidence Rises in Feb

Japan’s Cabinet Office reported today that the country’s consumer confidence rose to 39.8 in February from 39 a month earlier, rising for the second straight month.

The index on overall livelihood advanced to 40.7 from 39.8 a month ago, while income growth edged up 38.8 from 37.9 in January.

In addition, employment increased 34.2 from 33.1 and the willingness to buy durable goods jumped 45.4 in February from 43.3 a month ago.

Nikkei Movers

Unitika Ltd led the decliners in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a loss of 2.6% followed by losses in Yahoo Japan Corporation of 2.3%, in Denki Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha of 2.3%, in JGC Corp 2.2% and in Kirin Holdings Company, Limited 1.9%.

Fuji Electric Holdings Co., Ltd led gainers in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average with a rise of 8.8% followed by gains in 4.8%, in Shinsei Bank, Limited of 6.0% and in Clarion Co Ltd 5.9%.

Other Movers

JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc plunged 13.9% to 37.00 yen after the electronic products maker said its losses involving its subsidiary, Victor Co. of Japan, increased to 14.8 billion yen from 7.6 billion yen.

Kanematsu Corp the trading company rose 7.0% to 76.00 yen.

Iida Home Max Co., Ltd the homebuilder increased 4.2% to 1,488.00 yen.

Pack Corp added 2.8% to 1,386.00 yen after the maker of paper bags and boxes was upgraded “buy” in new coverage at Nomura Holdings Inc.

Shipping companies increased on the expectations of additional freight rates increases. The Baltic Dry Index in London trading surged 5.7% in Friday’s trading.

Nippon Yusen K.K. gained 2.6% to 354 yen and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines added 2.1% to 630 yen.

Sumco Corp surged 4.7% to 1,874 yen after silicon wafer maker estimated narrower than expected annual loss.

Yushin Precision Equipment Co decreased 4.6% to 1,431.00 yen after the maker of factory-automation equipment was downgraded to “neutral” from “neutral plus” at Mito Securities Co.