Tokyo stocks weaker at midsession as Hitachi falls
Monday October 21, 10:26 AM
sg.biz.yahoo.com
TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks slithered lower by the midsession break on Monday as electronics giant Hitachi Ltd and its peers faltered after a newspaper report that Hitachi had downgraded its earnings forecast.
News that Salomon Smith Barney had cut the weighting of Japanese equities in its global portfolio to 4.6 percent from 10.7 percent also weighed on the market, analysts said.
The tech-sensitive Nikkei 225-stock average was down 53.74 points or 0.59 percent at 9,032.39, after rising nearly eight percent in the previous five-day winning run.
The broader, capital-weighted TOPIX index was down 0.09 percent at 893.17.
"The report on Hitachi undermined shares in Hitachi and its peers since most of the electronics sector had put on significant gains in the past few days," said Hiroshi Sato, general manager at Cosmo Securities' equities department.
Hitachi , Japan's biggest electronics maker, was down three percent at 549 yen, off a two-week high of 572 yen marked on Friday, while another electronics conglomerate, Fujitsu Ltd , was down 2.43 percent at 481. |
