Monday, February 20, 2006

Tokyo markets fall again

by Brian Turner

The Tokyo markets fell substantially on Monday as declines continued in domestic sectors, with foreign selling a huge factor in the drops. The Nikkei 225 was down 1.8 percent to 15,437.93, while the Topix index dropped 2.1 percent to 1,572.11.

The banking sector as a whole was down 3 percent after Mitsubishi UFJ cut its group net profit forecasts for the 2008/2009 fiscal year by ¥100 billion. The cut was blamed on merger costs relating to computer systems and on bad loan charges. Mitsubishi’s shares fell 4.3 percent to ¥1,570,000. Mizuho dropped 3.4 percent to ¥870,000.

The securities sector dropped 4.4 percent, with Nomura losing 3.3 percent to ¥2,035 and Nikko Cordial falling 4.4 percent to ¥1,595.

The real estate sector was particularly affected by the pullout of foreign investors. Mitsubishi Estate declined by 3.4 percent to ¥2,245, while Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s largest property firm, dropped 2.2 percent to ¥2,190.

Elsewhere, Sony declined by 3.6 percent to ¥5,300 on a downgrade from Merrill Lynch from “neutral” to “sell”.

Despite the declines, most domestic and foreign analysts expect share prices in Japan will begin an upward climb as more strong economic news is reported.

 

 

 

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