No relief in sight: Tuesday August 3, 11:31 pm Eastern Time
Nikkei down by midday amid worry over yen
strength
TOKYO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average fell by midday on
Wednesday amid ongoing worries over a possible further rise in the yen against the dollar,
coupled with brisk selling on Tuesday's gains, traders said.
The Nikkei 225 average finished the morning session down 225.91 points or 1.26 percent at 17,744.02, despite some
traders' expectations that the average would firm.
September Nikkei futures <0#JNI:> were 250 points lower at 17,680.
The dollar had firmed against the yen on Tuesday after Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said he had talked by phone with
U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and they agreed to keep closely exchanging views on foreign exchange rates.
Tokyo stocks, which had been under presure from a firmer yen, rebounded towards the close on Tuesday, drawing support
from the dollar's appreciation.
But traders said that news alone failed to wipe out worries over the yen's possible future rise against the dollar, as the U.S.
stance on possible yen-selling intervention was unclear.
''Worries over exchange rates are still here, as the U.S. stance is not exactly clear to us,'' said Akihiro Naemura, a strategist
at Okasan Securities.
Overnight, Summers' spokeswoman declined to comment on whether he and Miyazawa had talked about the possibility of
joint intervention to curb the yen's rise.
A total of 233.56 million shares changed hands on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Broader indexes were all lower.
The TOPIX index of all first-section shares was 15.05 points or 1.02 percent lower at 1,466.94. The Nikkei 300 fell 3.57
points or 1.22 percent to end the morning at 289.93. The second section index declined 12.37 points or 0.54 percent to
2,260.00.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 768 to 398, with 135 issues unchanged. Other factors in the market:
*Sega Enterprises Ltd rose 244 yen or 13.7 percent to 2,025, buoyed by news of brisk U.S. sales of its Dreamcast game
player.
A source close to Sega's U.S. unit said earlier that the unit would soon announce it has chosen AT&T WorldNet as the
Internet service provider for its Sega Dreamcast Network.
*Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) finished the morning down 80,000 yen or 5.67 percent at 1.33 million amid
oversupply concerns following news on Tuesday that the Ministry of Finance wants to sell 952,000 of its NTT shares in
November.
*Tomy Co Ltd was up 200 yen or 3.15 percent at 6,550, helped by media reports that its shipments of a Japanese version
of the electronic pet toy ''Furby,'' which debuted in late May, surpassed one million units in July. |
