Tokyo stocks finish down on techs, policy wait
Monday October 21, 2:14 PM
sg.news.yahoo.com
TOKYO, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks fell on Monday as investors took advantage of a five-day winning streak to lock in profits in tech issues, aided by an uncertain earnings outlook for electronics giant Hitachi Ltd .
The tech-sensitive Nikkei 225-stock average dropped 1.19 percent to 8,978.41 after rising almost eight percent in the previous five-session winning run.
The capital-weighted TOPIX index of all first-section issues was down 0.54 percent at 889.08.
"After last week's rally in both Tokyo and New York we were set for a bit of profit taking -- and the report on Hitachi proved an excuse to sell tech issues," said Masatoshi Sato, manager of the equity division of Mizuho Investors Securities.
Hitachi, Japan's biggest electronics maker, fell 3.71 percent to 545 yen. That was off a two-week high of 572 hit on Friday after the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said over the weekend that Hitachi had cut its forecast for group operating profit in the year to March 31 to 130 billion yen ($1.04 billion) from an earlier forecast of 200 billion.
A company spokesman said this was speculation.
Hitachi's peers followed it lower, with NEC Corp down 4.21 percent at 500 yen and Toshiba Corp , Japan's largest chipmaker, down 4.12 percent at 326 yen.
Analysts said investors were also reluctant to wade into the market ahead of an interim report by a bad-loan task force set up by Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka, expected on Tuesday, and the blueprint of an "anti-deflation" policy package from the government, to come later in the week. |
