Japanese stocks recovered slightly on Wednesday morning apart from a sell-off
in miners. The Nikkei 225 was up 0.3% at 14,259.60 by midday. On Tuesday, it had
plunged 4.1% to its lowest level since last November. The Topix was flat,
closing the morning session at Y1,458.
Bucking the broader market, the mining sector dropped 3.8%. Sumitomo
Metal Mining, Japan’s
biggest gold producer, plunged 3.8% to Y1,201 following the sharpest decline in
gold prices in 15 years. Among the
better performers, the small and mid-cap Mothers index rose 1.5% to 1364.21, a
reversal from its recent performance. Despite the mildly positive performance
of the communications sector, with a 0.1% rise, some telecommunications
companies lost ground after KDDI announced a leakage of confidential consumer
survey data. KDDI share prices fell
1.35% to Y660,000, and NTT Docomo followed with a 1.19% loss to Y166,000. Carmakers, which are heavily reliant on
exports to the US, had a mixed session. Toyota, Japan’s largest, fell 0.7% to Y5,490
and Nissan, the second largest, declined 1% to Y1,220. By contrast, Mazda gained
1.2% to Y610, and Honda was up 0.9% at Y6,800. In the electrical machinery sector,
Sharp lost 2.54% and closed at Y1,572 and Sony saw a 1.26% decrease to Y4,710,
as the regional rout in LCD manufacturers continued.
Japanese Government Bond yields saw no change, remaining at 1.760%, as prices
rose marginally by 0.034 to 101.190.
