TOKYO: Japan’s Topix index swung between gains and losses after its first weekly decline in more than two months as energy explorers led the drop while airlines advanced.
Kyocera Corp. rose 1.4 percent after a report Oasis Management Co., an activist hedge fund, is buying the company’s stock. Japan Tobacco Inc. climbed 3.1 percent after Credit Suisse Group AG raised its target price on the shares. JX Holdings Inc. and Inpex Corp. fell at least 1.8 percent as crude declined for a second day, while a Topix group tracking air-transport companies increased 1.4 percent.
The Topix added 0.4 percent to 1,558.23 as of 12:41 p.m. in Tokyo after dropping as much as 0.6 percent. The measure slid 1.8 percent last week, its biggest such decline since early January. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.8 percent to 19,442.28 today. Data showed Japan’s factory output fell more than expected last month.
“The industrial production figures are having a negative effect while concern about geopolitical risks remains with uncertainty in the Middle East,” said Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. “But investors are buying on dips as there’s now a risk in not owning Japanese shares.”
