ZCZC
BCN-05
STOCKS-JAPAN-OPEN-MARKETS
Tokyo stocks open lower ahead of holidays
TOKYO, April 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks opened lower Friday amid
investor caution ahead of an unprecedented 10 days of holidays beginning this
weekend, with a stronger yen against the dollar also weighing on the market.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.62 percent, or 138.21 points, to
22,169.37 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was off 0.58 percent,
or 9.45 points, at 1,610.83.
“The fall in the Dow in New York and a stronger yen are seen as factors
behind falls in early trade in the Japanese market,” Okasan Online Securities
said in a commentary.
“Today’s trade lacks a sense of direction ahead of 10 days of holidays,”
it said.
Investors were also closely watching corporate earnings reports, analysts
said.
The dollar traded at 111.51 yen in early Asian trade, down from 111.61 yen
in New York.
In Tokyo, Nintendo was down 3.73 percent at 37,070 yen following two
pieces of major news about the company.
Late Thursday, it unveiled its latest earnings results, showing full-year
profit jumping nearly 40 percent year-on-year to 194 billion yen ($1.7
billion).
And on Friday, it said was working with Chinese internet firm Tencent to
roll out its popular Switch console in China.
Even though the latter “is definitely positive news,” the shares are down
“because people wanted to square positions before the holidays,” Hideki
Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute told AFP.
Elsewhere, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest dived 8.99 percent to
3,135 yen after it said its full-year operating profit for the year to March
2020 will drop 53.6 percent to 30 billion yen ($2.7 million).
Sony was down 2.24 percent at 5,139 yen and construction machine maker
Komatsu was off 1.51 percent at 2,794 yen ahead of the companies’ earnings
reports due later in the day.
Investors mainly shrugged off a series of official data released before
the opening bell.
Japan’s industrial output in March fell 0.9 percent month-on-month after a
0.7-percent rise the previous month, the industry ministry said.
Other data confirmed Japan’s labour market remains tight, with
unemployment rate edging up by 0.2 percentage points to 2.5 percent but the
job offers-to-applicants ratio unchanged at 1.63 — meaning 163 jobs are
available for every 100 job seekers.
On Wall Street, the Dow ended down 0.5 percent at 26,495.56.
BSS/AFP/HR/0940