TOKYO: Japanese stocks swung between gains and losses before the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision. Nintendo Co. is set to surge after announcing plans to develop smartphone games.
Nintendo shares were untraded, set to rise by their daily limit of 21 percent, as bids outnumbered sell offers after the company said it will team up with DeNA Co. to develop new games for mobile devices made by others. DeNA was also untraded and set to soar. Bank of Kyoto Ltd., Nintendo’s fifth-biggest shareholder, surged 14 percent. Oil explorer Inpex Corp. slid 3.3 percent as crude fell for a seventh day.
The Topix index climbed 0.3 percent to 1,575.20 as of 12:40 p.m. in Tokyo, swinging from a loss of 0.1 percent. About nine shares fell for every eight that rose, with volume about 10 percent below the 30-day intraday average. The Nikkei 225 Stocks Average added 0.1 percent to 19,450.23, reversing an decline of 0.3 percent.
“There’s definitely some profit taking ahead of the Fed,” said David Welch, head of equity sales trading at Reorient Group in Hong Kong. “But beneath the surface, some big changes are happening in the market. The ROE revolution is bubbling below the surface and after the changes we saw at Sony, Fanuc and now Nintendo, every portfolio manager in the world is looking for the next STOCK TO BUY
.”
