TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei share average was little changed on Wednesday morning as gains for index heavyweights such as Fast Retailing Co were offset by broader concerns over a bailout for Spain and volume ahead of the week's macro events.
Fast Retailing rose 4.2 percent, giving the benchmark 30 positive points, after the Nikkei daily said the operator of popular clothing firm Uniqlo should see sales top 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) in the year ending August 2013.
Toyota Motor Co also lent support, rising 1.2 percent in heavy trade after its US passenger car sales jumped 42 percent in September from the same month last year, as US monthly car sales struck their highest level since March 2008.
Nissan Motor Co, however, saw a year-on-year decline of 1.1 percent, leaving its share price down 0.8 percent.
The Nikkei added just 9.1 points to 8,795.10 by midday on a lack of larger incentives and as investors brooded over when, or indeed whether, Spain will request a bailout after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would not ask for one soon.
"We have problems with Greece and with Spain, but without any really positive news out it's very difficult to judge where a comfortable range for the Nikkei should be," said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO of Fukoku Capital Management.
Investors are also reluctant to move ahead of a series of big events over the next few days with the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan both due to start policy meetings on Thursday and US payroll data due on Friday.
"I think the BOJ is likely to loosen monetary policy because they said they would act if the economy worsened, which their last Tankan survey bore out," said Kyoya Okazawa, head of global equities at BNP Paribas.
Concern about dwindling global growth simmered as Australian exports dropped 3 percent in August from the previous year as a slowdown in China, the country's biggest export market, crimped shipments of raw materials such as metals and coal.
Investors fear Japanese firms' revenues in China will fall sharply in September after Japanese factories and shops were closed following protests triggered by a territorial dispute, which remains unresolved.
"The greatest concern for the market right now is how long this dispute could drag on," Okazawa of BNP Paribas said.
Despite that, the president of Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd said the precision machinery firm and Apple Inc supplier could escape those headwinds thanks to strong demand from smartphone makers, and its Chinese factories were at full capacity. The stock rose 0.7 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.