TOKYO: Japanese stocks dropped after data showed the country’s economy shrank less than previously reported, while Chinese exports declined for a second month in August.
MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. slid 1.9 percent after saying it’s considering an acquisition of British-rival Amlin Plc. Alps Electric Co. dropped 3.6 percent despite a report from Credit Suisse Group AG that said the supplier to Apple Inc. should benefit from the release of new iPhone models. Nomura Holdings Inc. sank 3.3 percent after Barclays Plc cut its rating on the brokerage. Pioneer Corp. jumped 8.9 percent after the electronics maker said it began collaboration with a German company to developed automated-driving maps.
The Topix index declined 1.2 percent to 1,427.93 as of 12:46 p.m. in Tokyo, with two stocks declining for every one that rose. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 1.7 percent to 17,561.68, taking it to within 1 percent of erasing the year’s gains. The yen strengthened 0.3 percent to 118.89 per dollar after a report showed Japan’s second-quarter gross domestic product shrank an annualized 1.2 percent compared with a previous estimate of a 1.6 percent decrease.
“The scope of the contraction was reduced, so as a whole this isn’t a bad report,” said Yoshinori Shigemi, a global market strategist in Tokyo at JPMorgan Asset Management. Despite the upward revision, “the outlook for additional fiscal stimulus later this year isn’t likely to change.”
