Nikkei rises 1.3 percent as exporters recoup losses
TOKYO |
(Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.3 percent on Wednesday as exporters recouped some of the previous day's losses, while Canon surged despite poor earnings results as bad news was already priced in.
Key Japanese companies are reporting this week but market players say the impact of individual firm's results is likely to be limited on the overall market.
Canon Inc (7751.T) reported a 5 percent fall in quarterly operating profit and cut its annual outlook as it gets to grips with the impact of last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami, which halted some output and looks likely to hinder it further.
Its shares, however, rose 6.2 percent to 3,710 yen as analysts said bad news was already factored in.
"Investors are shifting to forward-looking factors. Since it looks like Canon will resume normal parts procurement by June and July, investors are trying to get past bad numbers," said Yumi Nishimura, a senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities.
Analysts also said that although the market may stay strong on Wednesday, concerns about a stronger yen are likely to persist. The dollar was trading at 81.47 yen after touching a one-month low of 81.27 yen on EBS earlier.
They added that investors were keen to see the outcome of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's policy meeting and first ever post-meeting news conference by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday.
Bernanke will be closely watched for hints on how the Fed plans to exit from its ultra-loose monetary policy.
At the midday break, the Nikkei .N225 was up 1.3 percent to 9,682.21, while the broader Topix .TOPX gained 0.8 percent to 840.31.
Analysts said midterm resistance for the Nikkei was seen at its 200-day moving average of 9809.
Volume was thin, with 734 million shares changing hands on the Tokyo stock exchange's main board, which is set to post lower volume than last week's average daily volume of 1.74 billion shares.
Exporters made up ground lost the previous day, encouraged by gains on Wall Street after robust earnings, with Honda Motor (7267.T) adding 1.3 percent to 3,095 yen and Advantest (6857.T) rising 1.8 percent to 1,515 yen.
On the other hand, Daiwa Securities (8601.T), Japan's No.2 brokerage, slid 6.4 percent to 337 yen after it posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as valuation losses on investments mounted following last month's earthquake.
Shares of Sony (6758.T) dropped 0.3 percent to 2,407 yen on news that an unauthorized person broke into Sony's PlayStation video game online network and stole names, addresses and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts in what could be one of the largest-ever Internet security breaches.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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