Japanese shares down on profit-taking after S&P ratings cut
By DPA, IANSThursday, January 27, 2011
TOKYO - Japanese stocks fell in Friday morning trading as investors sold shares to lock in immediate gains after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Japanese government bonds the previous day.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 96.69 points, or 0.92 percent, to trade at 10,381.97 while the broader Topix index was down 9.81 points, or 1.06 percent, at 919.85.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded Japan’s long-term sovereign debt from AA to AA-minus Thursday, citing the lack of a coherent government strategy to deal with the problem of the rising state debt.
Japan’s jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent in December, putting unemployment below 5 percent for the first time in 10 months, the government said before the market opened. The jobless rate in 2010 stood at 5.1 percent, unchanged from 2009.
The government also said Japan’s consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, fell 0.4 percent in December from a year earlier, marking the 22nd consecutive month of decline.
On currency markets at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 82.89.90 yen, little changed from Thursday’s 5 p.m. quote of 82.85-86 yen.
The euro traded at $1.3722-3724, up from $1.3673-3674 Thursday, and at 113.72-78 yen, up from 113.28-32 yen.
