BLBG: Japanese Stocks Retreat, Led by Brokerages; Sumitomo Chemical Advances
Japanese stocks fell, led by brokerages on speculation recent gains will not be sustained.
Nomura Holdings Inc., the nation’s biggest brokerage, dropped 2 percent. Ryohin Keikaku Co., the operator of the Muji retail chain, slid 1.7 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said the company may post a profit decline. Sumitomo Chemical Co. rose 1.4 percent after announcing a plan to build a rubber plant.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 0.3 percent to 10,055.01 as of 2:09 p.m. in Tokyo after gaining as much as 0.5 percent. The broader Topix index fell 0.2 percent to 869.16. For the week, the Nikkei has advanced 0.5 percent, while the Topix was little changed. The Nikkei 225 jumped 9.5 percent this month to yesterday, the fastest pace among the world’s top 40 equity indexes.
“Japanese stocks jumped in a short period and narrowed the gap in performance with other markets,” said Ikuo Mitsui, who helps manage $270 million at Vivace Capital Management Co. “Investors want to see how the market will move from now.”
Stocks in the Nikkei are valued at 17.8 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 14.1 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 12 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.
Brokerages, which increased the most this month among the 33 industry groups in the Topix, had the largest drop today. Nomura sank 2 percent to 484 yen, the heaviest drag on the Topix. Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan’s second-largest brokerage, sank 2.3 percent to 380 yen. SBI Holdings Inc. dropped 1.1 percent to 11,400 yen.
Ryohin Keikaku
Ryohin Keikaku, the operator of the Muji retail chain, declined 1.7 percent to 3,260 yen. The company may see its group operating profit drop 18 percent to about 10 billion yen ($119 million) for the nine months ending Nov. 30, Nikkei English News reported, without saying where it got the information.
Sumitomo Chemical climbed 1.4 percent to 365 yen, on course for the highest close since Oct. 19. The company said on its Web site it will build a plant in Singapore to produce solution styrene-butadiene rubber, aiming to start commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Japan’s consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.6 percent from a year earlier after dropping 1.1 percent in September, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. That compares with a median 0.6 percent drop forecast by 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
To contact the reporters on this story: Akiko Ikeda in Tokyo at iakiko@bloomberg.net; Kotaro Tsunetomi in Tokyo at ktsunetomi@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.
