LOS ANGELES: Japanese stocks made a humble advance in early trade on Thursday after shaking between gains and losses, with the Nikkei Average NIK, -0.05% surged 0.3% after the Bank of Japan’s cut to its near-term consumer-price predict sent the index to a 0.5% loss at the end.
The broader Topix remained flat, however. While the yen managed to weaken a little against the dollar USDJPY, +0.13% (¥118.07 vs. ¥117.67 at end of Wednesday trade), the forex-sensitive tech blue chips were mixed, with Hitachi Ltd. 6501, -1.31% HTHIF, -0.65% down 1.4% and Fujitsu Ltd. 6702, -0.60% FJTSY, +0.30% down 0.6%, but TDK Corp. 6762, -1.23% TTDKF, -0.79% up 1% and Sharp Corp. 6753, +1.36% SHCAF, -8.78% up 0.9%. Sony Corp. 6758, +0.04% SNE, +5.24% which saw both its Tokyo- and U.S.-listed shares surge more than 5% each on Wednesday, rose another 1.5% in early moves.
A previous Nikkei news report had said the conglomerate would launch an early-retirement program as part of its efforts to trim staff. Auto makers were also mixed, with Toyota Motor Corp. 7203, -0.66% TM, -0.39% flat, Isuzu Motors Ltd. 7202, -2.24% ISUZF, +1.27% down 0.4%, and Nissan Motor Co. 7201, +0.59% NSANY, +0.23% up 0.5% as reports said it would move some production back to Japan to take advantage of the weaker yen. Telecoms were broadly higher, with Softbank Corp. 9984, +2.86% SFTBF, +0.15% up 2.8%, KDDI Corp. 9433, +0.92% KDDIF, +0.00% up 1.4% and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. 9432, +2.27% NTT, -0.43% up 1.5%, though NTT DoCoMo Inc. 9437, -0.28% DCM, +1.21% lagged with just a 0.2% rise.
The moves came after Standard & Poor’s cut the credit ratings for DoCoMo and parent NTT, citing increased competition facing DoCoMo in the wireless arena. Among the smaller names, Unicharm Corp. 8113, -0.54% — makers of Moony diapers, among other brands — climbed 3.4% as the Nikkei reported the company would beat its earnings guidance, thanks in part to strong sales in China.
