Bloomberg (25/10) -- Japanese stocks fell, with the Topix index slumping
the most in more than two months, as the yen extended gains against the
dollar and exporters slid.Toyota Motor Corp., Asia’s largest
car manufacturer, fell 2.1 percent. SoftBank Corp., a mobile-phone
company, lost 4.8 percent after a report Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
abandoned plans for an initial public offering in the near term.
SoftBank said in July it holds a stake of about 37 percent in Alibaba.
Canon Inc., the world’s biggest camera maker, slipped 1.6 percent after
cutting its profit forecast. JFE Holdings Inc., Japan’s second-biggest
steelmaker, slumped 4.2 percent after its net-income outlook missed
estimates.The Topix dropped 2.1 percent to 1,178.28 at the close
in Tokyo, its biggest decline since Aug. 7, with all 33 subsectors
sliding. The gauge fell 2.3 percent this week. The Nikkei 225 Stock
Average sank 2.8 percent to 14,088.19, with just five companies rising.
Nikkei 225 futures traded in Osaka slumped 2.5 percent. The yen touched a
two-week high against the dollar.“Short-term traders like hedge
funds are adjusting their positions and that’s impacting the market,”
said Tsutomu Yamada, a market analyst at Kabu.com Securities Co.
“Futures led the cash market lower, the yen’s gain followed and that
caused a further drop in shares.”The Topix has lost 1.3 percent
this month, trailing all its 23 developed-market peers. Japanese shares
are still the best performers this year among the markets amid optimism
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policies and unprecedented monetary easing
from the Bank of Japan will lead the country out of deflation.Consumer
prices excluding fresh food in the nation rose 0.7 percent from a year
earlier last month, meeting the median estimate of economists surveyed
by Bloomberg. Stripping out energy costs as well, prices were unchanged
from a year ago, ending four years of declines and signaling progress in
the prime minister’s campaign to overcome deflation.
