Just for completeness, here are a couple of stories that were posted on the Nikkei Net including their version of the Nasdaq-Osaka story:
Friday, December 24, 1999
Nasdaq Japan To Start Operations At OSE In June 2000
OSAKA (Nikkei)--The Osaka Securities Exchange and the alliance of the U.S. National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and Softbank Corp. (9984) agreed Friday to establish comprehensive relations, sources close to the deal said.
Under the agreement, Nasdaq Japan, a new computer-based market being planned by NASD and Softbank, will be set up at the OSE at the end of June next year. NASD and Softbank plan to link the trading network with other Asian securities exchanges and eventually to a global trading network.
After the completion of the network, Japan Nasdaq investors will be able to buy stocks listed on the world's major markets.
Nasdaq Japan is expected to trade about 5,000 issues listed on its U.S. sister market as well as shares of Japanese start-up firms.
The NASD-Softbank alliance plans to form Nasdaq International by joining with Nasdaq Europe, which will be set up in London.
NASD has already tied up with securities exchanges in Hong Kong and Australia and will invite other Asian bourses to join the Nasdaq Japan network which, though located at the OSE, will operate as an independent entity.
The OSE and NASD will also cooperate in derivatives trading. NASD will likely handle Nikkei 225 futures and options traded on the OSE and the OSE will likely trade derivatives listed on the American Stock Exchange.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday evening edition)
Friday, December 24, 1999
Japan's Net Stocks Take Center Stage
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Taking their cue from Internet mania in the U.S., Japanese investors have started a buying spree of Net-related issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's new Mothers market, according to analysts.
Two such companies -- Internet Research Institute Inc. (4741) and Liquid Audio Japan Inc. (4740) -- went public on Dec. 22, the opening day of trading for the bourse specializing in start-up firms, but failed to change hands despite a flood of buy orders.
The lack of available shares for emerging Net stocks is expected to cause wild price fluctuations in future.
Investor enthusiasm seems to be focused on Net-related stocks as a category rather than on individual issues due to their business performance.
The popularity of the two firms is hard to explain from the viewpoint of existing investment standards, including the ratio of market valuation to annual sales.
The ratio, called PSR, is now attracting attention in the U.S. as a measure of the value of Net-related companies.
Internet Research Institute's PSR stood at 224 based on its bid price Wednesday, while that of Liquid Audio was calculated at 1,300. These figures are surprisingly high compared with the average 10-30 for U.S. Net-related companies.
Most large-cap Japanese companies have a PSR of less than 10, with those of Toshiba Corp. (6502), NEC Corp. (6701) and Nippon Steel Corp. (5401) standing below 1.
Net-related stocks are booming not only on the Mothers market but also on the first section of the TSE.
Among the top 10 companies listed on the first section in terms of market valuation, seven are Internet-related businesses -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (9432), NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (9437), NTT Data Corp. (9613), Sony Corp. (6758), Softbank Corp. (9984), Fujitsu Ltd. (6702) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752).
Their combined market valuation accounts for more than 20% of the market aggregate.
The reputation of information technology stocks has heated up here since the spring, carrying over the boom of "dot-com" ventures from the U.S.
The main thing differentiating Japan's boom in Net stocks from that of the U.S. is that the number of shares floated on the Japanese market is extremely low.
Such a trend often causes wild price movements since any large transaction squeezes supply, analysts said.
There is another weak point behind the Net-related stock boom in Japan. There are only three non-IT firms here in the top 10 companies in terms of market capitalization, but among the top 10 U.S. companies, seven are from non-IT sectors.
These two points reflect the gap between Japan and the U.S. in the depth of corporate commitment to Net-based businesses, as shown in the spread of e-commerce, analysts said.
(The Nikkei Industrial Daily Friday edition)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
