Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Tokyo markets lower as securities, chipmakers decline

by Brian Turner

The Tokyo equities markets were down on Wednesday as investors took profits. The Nikkei 225 ended the day down by 0.8 percent to 16,495.48, while the Topix index was down 0.1 percent to 1,686.35.

The semiconductor sector was down on the day after Microsoft announced that it is putting off the release of its new Windows Vista operating system. The new release was expected to increase the demand for chips. Elpida Memory was down 3.1 percent to ¥4,100 and Advantest dropped 1.3 percent to ¥13,240.

The securities sector was down a bit as Nomura, Japan’s largest securities house, declined by 1.7 percent to ¥2,550.

Exporter Toyota, the largest automobile manufacturer in Japan, lost 1 percent on the day to ¥6,340. Elsewhere in the sector, Nissan Motor was up 1 percent to ¥1,373. Nissan’s truck manufacturing subsidiary, Nissan Diesel, gained 4.8 percent to ¥694 on the news that Volvo will purchase a 13 percent share of the company. The deal makes Volvo the largest single shareholder in the Japanese truck maker.

Educational book publisher Gakken was up 8.8 percent to ¥694 on the announcement that it has made a deal to develop and sell educational games in conjunction with game maker Square Enix, which was down 0.7 percent on the day to ¥3,020.

 

 

 

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