Friday, August 25, 2006

Paper merger likely a non-starter

by Brian Turner

Equities markets in Tokyo were lower on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 dropping 0.1 percent to 15,938.66 and the Topix index falling 0.2 percent to 1,619.81. Both had been higher earlier in the session as inflation was reported lower than had been expected, indicating that the Bank of Japan won’t raise interest rates soon. However, a huge decline by shares in Softbank sent the markets in a negative direction.

Softbank, the internet services company that ventured into the mobile telecommunications business with its takeover of Vodafone, declined by 9.7 percent to ¥2,265 as investors worried about the size of its debt. Earlier this week, Lehman Brothers issued negative comments.

Hokuetsu Paper was 3.4 percent lower to ¥776 as Oji Paper’s takeover bid looked less and less likely to go forward. Oji, meanwhile, added 0.4 percent to ¥690.

Sony dropped another 2 percent to ¥5,000 when the recall of batteries it manufactures for laptop computers extended beyond Dell to Apple computers.

In domestic sectors, real estate and securities each fell 0.7 percent. Among real estate companies, Mitsubishi Estate was 0.8 percent lower to ¥2,475.

 

 

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