Tokyo, Nov. 14 (Jiji Press)–Stocks tumbled on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, dragged down by selling of pricey technology issues amid the yen’s rise versus the dollar.
Individual investors, who snapped up their darling Internet business investor Softbank and many of banks on margin in the phase of the Nikkei average’s rally last month, dumped those issues as the sluggish market threatened to spark margin calls, brokers said.
The 225-issue Nikkei average ended down 170.61 points, or 1.7 pct, at 10,167.06. On Thursday, the average rose 111.45 points.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was down 11.73 points, or 1.2 pct, at 1,006.77. It ended up 12.34 points in the previous session.(MORE)Tokyo Stocks Tumble, Selling Hits Techs amid Yen’s Rise
Losing issues trounced winners 879 to 517 on the first section, while 134 issues ended flat.
Volume came to 1,112 million shares against Thursday’s 952 million shares.
The market ignored slightly better-than-expected Japanese gross domestic product data for July-September, announced shortly before the opening bell.
The Cabinet Office said Japan’s quarter-on-quarter real GDP growth came to 0.6 pct after seasonal adjustment in the second quarter of fiscal 2003, against an average forecast of a 0.3 pct rise at 14 think tanks polled by Jiji Press.
“The GDP growth had little impact on the market as the deteriorated GDP deflator indicated difficulties in turning around the deflationary trend,” said Nagayuki Yamagishi, senior equity manager at UFJ Tsubasa Securities Co.
Meanwhile, yen buying versus the dollar, accelerated by the GDP data, put downward pressure on export-oriented technology issues out of concerns that a higher yen may eat into their overseas earnings.
Market watchers said the Nikkei average may stay softer in the short term reflecting the deteriorating supply-demand balance of equities.
“The market lacks active buyers as foreign investors opt to sell ahead of many hedge funds’ book closings in November,” said Norihiro Fujito, equity strategist at Mitsubishi Securities Co. “The Nikkei may be tested at a low below 10,000, if U.S. stocks succumb to profit-taking and the dollar slips below 107.50 yen.”(MORE)Tokyo Stocks Tumble, Selling Hits Techs amid Yen’s Rise
Losers in the technology sector included Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Canon, Sony and NEC.
Softbank, the most heavily traded issue in value on the TSE’s first section, briefly suffered a maximum allowable single-day loss.
Portal site operator Yahoo Japan slumped after the issue was not included in Thursday’s review of Morgan Stanley Capital International’s Japan index.
Among megabanks, Mitsubishi Tokyo, UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui faltered, while Mizuho ended higher.
Also lower were telecom carriers NTT, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.
On the positive side were utilities such as Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas.
In index futures trading, the December contract on the Nikkei average ended down 150 points at 10,170 on the Osaka Securities Exchange.END
