TOKYO: Japanese stocks swung between gains and losses as investors weigh earnings and after the central bank maintained record stimulus measures.
Konami Corp. dropped 2.5 percent after Morgan Stanley Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. cut its rating on the video-game maker. Konica Minolta Inc. slumped 8.8 percent after the camera-maker’s profit missed analyst estimates. Rival Nikon Corp. surged 6.5 percent after raising its profit forecast. SoftBank Group Corp. added 4.4 percent after the carrier said it will spend 120 billion yen ($962 million) buying back shares.
The Topix index gained 0.1 percent to 1,675.14 as of 12:49 p.m. in Tokyo, erasing an earlier loss of 0.6 percent and heading for a weekly advance of 0.9 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.1 percent to 20,690.46.
“At the moment, moves are centered around stock picking and shifting sectors,” Hitoshi Asaoka, Tokyo-based senior strategist at Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. said by phone. “I expect investors to mainly be sitting on the fence.”
More than 250 firms on the Topix index report earnings on Friday. Of the companies that have posted quarterly results this season and for which estimates are available, 64 percent exceeded profit expectations, an improvement from the 48 percent that beat forecasts in the previous quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Bank of Japan refrained from expanding monetary stimulus Friday as Governor Haruhiko Kuroda bets the world’s third-biggest economy will emerge from a recent soft patch and inflation will pick up.
