Japanese shares mixed on weak machinery orders, profit-taking
By DPA, IANSWednesday, February 9, 2011
TOKYO - Japanese stocks were mixed in Thursday morning trading as machinery orders increased for the first time in four months but came in weaker than expected. Investors also put downward pressure on the market as they sold shares to lock in profits from recent gains.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 4.06 points, or 0.04 percent, to trade at 10,613.77 while the broader Topix index was up 1.97 points, or 0.21 percent, at 945.99.
Core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude volatile categories such as ships and power plants, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in December from the previous month to 735.3 billion yen ($8.93 billion), the government said.
The figure was far lower than the average 5.2-percent rise forecast by economists in a survey by the Kyodo News agency.
Shares in Toyota Motor Corp rose 2.59 percent as of 11 a.m. (0200 GMT) on news of a first for a Japanese carmaker: establishing a production facility in Russia’s Far East.
The world’s largest carmaker is tying up with Japan’s Mitsui and Co and the Russian carmaker Sollers to make passenger vehicles starting next year in Vladivostok, Russia, the Nikkei business daily reported Thursday.
On currency markets at 11 a.m. (0200 GMT), the dollar traded at 82.56-58 yen, up from Wednesday’s 5 p.m. quote of 82.41-42 yen.
The euro traded at $1.3709-3712, up from $1.3636-3637 Wednesday, and at 113.19-22 yen, up from 112.38-42 yen.
