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Strategies & Market Trends : Classic TA Workplace -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clappy who wrote (10778)	8/23/2001 7:02:58 AM
From: UnBelievable	Respond to of 209892

OT Tokyo stocks tumble, Nikkei at 17-year closing low Is the bottome in now? <gg> By Kiyoshi Takenaka TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average closed on Thursday at the lowest level since October 1984 after big name high-tech issues such as Sony Corp lost ground due to continued worries about their dwindling profits. ADVERTISEMENT Several of Japan's top technology firms, including Sony, have already cut their earnings forecasts for the year to next March, but investors fear that a global high-tech slump may force them to revise down forecasts again. ``I see no incentives around for investors to buy aggressively. Chances are we'll see another wave of profit warnings when they announce half-year earnings in October,'' said Keiko Kondo, senior strategist at UFJ Capital Markets Securities. ``It would not be too late to start buying then.'' Shortly after the market closed, electronics parts maker Kyocera Corp slashed almost by half its group net profit forecast for the year to next March, and Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd cut its group net profit projection by 27 percent. The Nikkei ended down 269.51 points or 2.36 percent at 11,126.92, while the broader TOPIX index (^TOPX - news) fell 18.15 points or 1.56 percent to 1,147.39. Sony fell 4.15 percent to 5,550 yen, the lowest close since June 1999, while Kyocera lost 3.31 percent to 7,300 yen and Murata was down 3.23 percent at 5,990 yen. Institutional investors agreed with UFJ's Kondo, and said the latest announcements from Kyocera and Murata would not spell the end of a series of high-tech profit warnings. ``There will be more earnings downgrades in the second half of the fiscal year despite the bad announcements, which we had already,'' said Hokan Hedstrom, head of investment management at Commerz International Capital Management. Underlining the tough conditions facing major exporters, data released by the government in the morning showed Japan's trade surplus sank 58 percent in July from a year earlier. Decliners outpaced advancers 755 to 558 on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Trading was active with 906.67 million shares changing hands on the first section, the highest in more than two months. NTT FIRMS HIT Also weighing on the Tokyo market heavily was NTT DoCoMo Inc , Japan's dominant mobile phone carrier. DoCoMo fell 6.88 percent to 1.49 million yen on worries it may have to write down its investment overseas, including AT&T Wireless Group (NYSE:AWE - news) and KPN Telecom NV's (NYSE:KPN - news) wireless unit KPN Mobile, amid a global downtrend in telecom shares. Another NTT group firm NTT Data Corp fared even worse, ending the day down 8.57 percent at 480,000 yen after the planned listing of rival computer systems solutions provider Nomura Research Institute (NRI) raised valuation concerns. An affiliate of number-one broker Nomura Securities Co Ltd , NRI said on Tuesday it would list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on October 2, aiming to raise 24 billion yen by issuing two million new shares at a price tentatively set by the lead manager at 12,000 yen each. ``Basically, the suggested price that they (NRI) are talking about puts it on a valuation at a considerable discount to other system integrators,'' said Caroline Stone, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities. She estimates the 12,000 yen price tag would put NRI's shares at 24 times its per-share earnings forecast for the year ending March 2002. At Thursday's close, NTT Data traded at about 52 times its per-share earnings. FAST RETAILING ADDS PRESSURE The downward pressure was not limited to info-tech issues. Japan's top casual clothing retailer, Fast Retailing Co Ltd , fell 7.7 percent to 17,260 yen after it said it plans to open fewer of its popular Uniqlo stores in the next six months, opting instead for larger shops to counter slowing sales. A shift toward large-scale stores is a step in the right direction for Fast Retailing, but investors chose to focus more on its slowing growth, traders said. ``Fast Retailing grew really fast. But signs that growth is slowing have some investors nervous,'' said Hidenori Kawasaki, general manager in equities trading at Kokusai Securities.