Tokyo shares end morning down on profit-taking

Tokyo shares end morning down on profit-taking

	Published : Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:09 By : Agencies Print this Story

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices ended the morning session lower after investors locked-in profits on their recent gains, dealers said.

They said trading here had followed the lackluster performance of US stock markets overnight, and that investors had been cautious while they awaited the special quotation for settling futures and options contracts later this week.

A drop in oil prices weighed on shares raw materials companies, dealers said.

At the break, the blue-chip Nikkei 225 Stock Average had lost 290.88 points or 1.69 pct at 16,946.89, off a high of 17,199.42.

The broader TOPIX index of all first-section issues had dropped 25.55 points or 1.51 pct to 1,666.57, off a high of 1,690.98.

Decliners were swamping gainers 1,366 to 263, with 81 stocks flat.

Volume fell to 1.0 bln shares from 1.1 bln yesterday morning.

Hideyui Suzuki, a strategist at SBI Securities, said: 'The losses on the market here were due profit-taking.'

He said a drop in crude oil prices had pushed down the prices of shares in raw materials companies.

'A drop in oil prices should be positive for overall economic fundamentals. But the declines in energy shares in the US influenced those in Japan,' he said.

Shinko Securities jumped 49 yen or 10.5 pct to 515 after the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that it is to merge with another brokerage, Mizuho Securities, dealers said. Mizuho Securities is not listed, but the stock of its parent, Mizuho Financial Group, was down 6,000 yen or 0.7 pct at 874,000.

Japan Airlines gained 7 yen or 3.1 pct at 232 after the Nikkei reported that the airline is considering slashing some 3,000 jobs over the next 2-3 years.

Lawson lost 90 yen or 2.1 pct at 4,310 and FamilyMart shed 180 yen or 5.3 pct at 3,190 after the convenience store operators both reported declines in profit for the first nine months of their fiscal year.

Matsushita Electric Industrial fell 85 yen or 3.6 pct to 2,290 amid growing uncertainty about the profitability of the plasma display panel television business, dealers said.

Among oil shares, Nippon Oil dropped 39 yen or 4.9 pct to 765, Cosmo Oil slid 9 yen or 1.9 pct to 477 and Showa Shell lost 13 yen or 1 pct at 1,275.

Nippon Steel fell 21 yen or 3.2 pct to 628, Kobe Steel lost 11 yen or 2.8 pct at 383 and JFE Holdings was down 130 yen or 2.2 pct at 5,850.

(1 usd = 119.35 yen)

kaori.kaneko@xfn.com