Nikkei falls 1.2 percent as stocks hit across the board
Oct 22, 2009 Make Money Online
By Aiko Hayashi
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei average fell 1.2 percent on Thursday, with stocks hit across the board after a warning from a banking analyst prompted a sell-off in U.S. financial shares.
Amid caution ahead of the upcoming Japanese earnings season, exporters such as Kyocera Corp as well as banking stocks shed recent gains.
Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) dropped after a newspaper reported that the company’s net loss may balloon to as much as about $5.5 billion for the year ending in March, while KDDI Corp slid after a brokerage downgrade.
“The stock market is taking a breather. Earnings reports have been in line or above expectations, but the stock market has already factored that in and climbed to high levels,” said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
“We’ll have to be careful that positive factors might not be reflected in stock moves 100 percent from now on.”
In moderate trade, the benchmark Nikkei slipped 122.61 points to 10,210.78. It hit a three-week closing high on Tuesday.
The broader Topix fell 1.3 percent to 901.68.
Japan’s earnings season will swing into full gear next week. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Development Bank, JAL, Japan Airlines Corp, Kyocera Corp, Nikkei, Stock Market
