TOKYO: Japanese stocks dipped out of the Wednesday market open, feeling the weight of solid gains for the yen, but with reports citing investor caution ahead of Chinese economic data — including first-quarter economic growth — due out later in the morning.
The Nikkei Average NIK, -0.23% was down 0.3%, with a 0.4% drop for the Topix, as the dollar USDJPY, +0.22% traded more than a full yen lower than at the previous Tokyo stock close, buying ¥119.53, down from ¥120.74. The forex moves, as well as earnings from Intel Corp. INTC, +3.18% which included projections for flat revenue in 2015, appeared to drag on techs (though Intel stocks themselves rose in U.S. after-hours trade). Tokyo Electron Ltd. 8035, -0.87% TOELF, -1.10% Hitachi Ltd. 6501, -1.23% HTHIF, -0.59% and Fujitsu Ltd. 6702, -1.51% FJTSY, +0.09% all fell 1.4% each, while Advantest Corp. 6857, -1.43% ADTTF, -23.34% lost 1.2%, and Trend Micro Inc. 4704, -1.58% TMICY, -0.06% gave up 1.7%. Among other decliners, NTT DoCoMo Inc. 9437, -0.76% DCM, +0.03% was down 1.2%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. 8316, -0.84% SMFG, +0.12% retreated by 0.7%, and Rakuten Inc. 4755, -1.36% RKUNF, +1.31% weakened by 1%. Still, some of the previous session’s top gainers extended their winnings, with Sony Corp. 6758, +0.80% SNE, -0.09% up 0.3% (it rose 2.2% Tuesday) and Softbank Corp. 9984, +2.24% SFTBF, +2.04% up 1.2% (after a 2% gain on the back of upbeat comments from Nomura analysts). Likewise, Obayashi Corp. 1802, +2.63% OBYCF, -2.17% added 1.6% after raising forecasts for its fiscal-year net profit and dividend a day earlier. Stock in utility Kansai Electric Power Co. 9503, +1.12% advanced 1.9%, even as a Japanese court blocked the reopening of two Kansai nuclear-power plants shuttered since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
