Tokyo stocks fall on tech earnings woes
biz.yahoo.com
Sunday February 3, 7:38 pm Eastern Time
Tokyo stocks fall on tech earnings woes
(UPDATE: Updates to open)
TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Tokyo shares fell in early trade on Monday, led by drops in several high-tech issues such as Tokyo Electron Co Ltd on bleak earnings reports resulting from the info-tech slump.
Eroding hopes for the nation's structural reforms also weighed on the market, analysts said.
``There is no single piece of news at home that we can be bullish about,'' said Kazunori Jinnai, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC's equity department.
The tech-sensitive Nikkei share average lost 0.46 percent or 45.10 points to 9,746.33 in the first 10 minutes of trade, while the broader TOPIX index (^TOPX - news) edged down 1.42 points or 0.15 percent to 954.84.
Several newspaper polls at the weekend showed approval ratings for the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi fell to around 50 percent, the lowest since he took office in April, following his sacking of Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister.
Koizumi's popularity has been considered his main weapon against anti-reform elements in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Tokyo Electron lost 3.61 percent to 6,410 yen after the company, Japan's biggest manufacturer of chipmaking equipment, became the latest high-tech firm to warn of deteriorating earnings after the market closed on Friday.
Earnings disappointments are likely to continue as a newspaper reported on Saturday that TDK Corp , the world's biggest maker of magnetic heads for hard-disk drives, was expected to post a group net loss of 20 billion yen ($150 million) for the current business year to March.
TDK's earnings for the latest quarter are due on Tuesday.
TDK was ask-only at 5,620 yen, down 300 yen or 5.07 percent from the previous close.
Snow Brand Food Co Ltd , accused of falsely labelling its beef products in an attempt to get government money, took a nosedive after Japanese police on Saturday raided its offices.
Shares of the company, Japan's sixth-largest meat packer, sank 20.93 percent to 34 yen. |
