TOKYO: Japanese stocks rose as strong earnings from NTT Docomo Inc. to Hitachi Ltd. boosted shares, while the yen weakened after the Federal Reserve confirmed the barriers to raising U.S. interest rates this year are getting smaller.
NTT Docomo jumped 5 percent as cost cutting helped the mobile carrier beat profit estimates. Industrial conglomerate Hitachi soared 8 percent after first-quarter net income grew 31 percent on higher sales and cheaper oil. A weaker yen and sales of a new videogame boosted profit at Nintendo Co., sending shares 9.1 percent higher. Panasonic Corp. tumbled 5.4 percent as the electronics maker’s profit missed estimates.
The Topix index climbed 1.1 percent to 1,652.41 as of 12:37 p.m. in Tokyo, with brokerages leading gains while drugmakers dropped. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 1.2 percent to 20,550.94. The yen dropped 0.2 percent to 124.13 per dollar, weakening for a second day after Fed policy makers said the U.S. labor and housing markets had improved, while refraining from providing timing for interest-rate increases.
The Fed’s suggestion that “we’re clearly headed for rate hikes and that their time is approaching” will push the yen into weaker territory against the dollar, said Hitoshi Asaoka, Tokyo-based senior strategist at Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. While there are a few soft patches such as Panasonic, “the fundamental takeaway is that earnings are being aided by the weaker yen.”
More than 500 Japanese companies report earnings on Thursday and Friday, representing nearly a third of all firms in the Topix. Of the 388 to report so far, 56 percent have exceeded profit expectations, an improvement from the 48 percent that beat forecasts in the last quarter.
