Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Tokyo down for third day

by Brian Turner

A major scandal was the main reason that the Tokyo markets dropped for the third straight day on Wednesday.

Kanebo, a household goods company, as its shares fall 13.4 percent, a four-month low, on its admission that it had uncovered accounting fraud that totaled ¥150 billion over a five-year period.

Reports were that the firm’s former managers perpetrated one of the largest known accounting frauds in a non-financial company by vastly overstating earnings. Investors feared that the scandal would force the company to delist.

Oil stocks were also lower in Tokyo on Wednesday, as the Nikkei fell 0.3 percent, ending at 11,637.52. The Topix was also down by 0.3 percent to settle at 1,176.39.

In other Asian markets, the Manila composite was down 0.6 percent due to fears that less income than was expected will be generated by a new tax bill.

Other Asian markets did better, showing little effect from the further drop in crude oil prices and less concern about US interest-rate rises. Shanghai saw a 2.4 percent rise and Hong Kong achieved a three-week high with the Hang Seng index up 1 percent.

 

 

 

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