Domestic sectors weaken in Tokyo market

Domestic sectors lost some of their recent gains on Thursday, but their fall was counterbalanced by bargain hunting among exporters. The tech-heavy Nikkei 225 finished 0.1 per cent lower at 15,941.37. The Topix rose 0.1 per cent to 1,637.89.

Real estate paused for breath, after two days of exceptionally large rises on excitement about the prospect of higher property prices. But there was some repositioning within the sector. Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property company, rose 1.7 per cent to Y2,340 – after severely underperforming the sector average this week. But Mitsubishi Estate, its biggest rival, declined 1.7 per cent to Y2,350 after a meteoric rise.

Retailing fell 1.1 per cent. Seven & I, which owns convenience stores, was down 1.8 per cent at Y4,410. Takashimaya, the department store chain, fell 2.2 per cent to Y1,846.

Banking fell 0.7 per cent. Mitsubishi UFJ, the world’s biggest bank by assets, slipped 1.2 per cent to Y1,650,000.

Sanyo Electric, the troubled consumer electronics maker, jumped 19.1 per cent to Y337 after saying on Wednesday it would raise Y300bn yen by issuing preferred shares to finance restructuring.

TDK and Alps Electric, which make the heads for hard disc drives, slumped after Seagate Technology in the US, the world’s biggest hard disk drive maker, said on Wednesday it would buy its rival Maxtor. Since Maxtor is the two companies’ biggest client for disc heads, both fell on fears of lower sales. TDK dropped by Y1,000, its daily limit, to Y8,690 – a 10.3 per cent decline. Alps Electric fell 12.3 per cent to Y1,640.

But other electrical machinery stocks rose, helped by a further slight recovery in the dollar against the yen and a sense among some investors that their severe underperformance this year has not been justified by fundamentals. Sony, the consumer electronics giant, jumped 5.2 per cent to Y4,630. Fellow consumer electronics conglomerate Toshiba rose 3.3 per cent to Y690.