Stocks in Tokyo rose for a fifth-straight session Wednesday as the U.S. dollar marched higher, although shares of SoftBank Corp. slumped after the Japanese Internet conglomerate disappointed investors by cutting its profit forecast.
The Nikkei 225 moved up yet again, 74.85 points, or 0.4%, to 16,937.32, accumulating a gain of 10% over its latest four sessions, although most of those gains came Friday and Monday after Bank of Japan’s massive stimulus move.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 150.04 points, or 0.6%, to 23,695.62, after HSBC reported that a gauge on services activity in China fell to 52.9 in October from 53.5 in September. It was the second straight month of deterioration and latest sign of slow growth in China.
The U.S. dollar rose above the ¥114 mark after news that U.S. Republican Senate candidates won sweeping victories in midterm elections, further bolstering political opposition to President Barack Obama in Congress. The currency had been at ¥113.61 late Tuesday in New York and has been strengthening since mid-October, a positive for Japanese exporters who make profit abroad in dollars
Lagging the market was SoftBank whose shares lost 2.3% after worse-than-expected results at its U.S. subsidiary Sprint Corp left it to cut its profit outlook. Still, SoftBank reported a quarterly net profit of ¥483 billion ($4.26 billion U.S.), nearly triple its year-earlier figure.
That result also included a ¥563 billion gain from the firm’s more than 30% stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. which reported its first results as a U.S.-listed company on Tuesday.
Stocks were mostly lower in the rest of Asia.
In Hong Kong, PetroChina slumped 2.5% to HK$9.36 as Brent crude hits a four-year low of $81.87.
Singapore’s Straits Times reopened late in the day after the exchange’s operator halted trading in securities and derivatives without stating a reason for the disruption.
Heavyweight Korean exporters continued to bleed losses amid worries that Japanese competitors would benefit from a weakened Japanese yen. Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co were down 1.2% and 2.6% respectively.
In Japan, Nissan Motor gained 2.1% after the firm’s second-quarter results beat the street consensus. Management didn’t change its full-year guidance despite raising its second-half currency assumptions to USD/JPY 105 from 100.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 index dipped 9.72 points, or 0.4%, to 2,503.45
Singapore’s Straits Times Index inched up 6.09 points, or 0.2%, to 3,287.66
The Taiex index in Taiwan fell 26.58 points, or 0.3%, to 8,962.50
Korea’s Kospi index moved lower 3.76 points, or 0.2%, to 1,931.43
New Zealand’s Exchange 50 subtracted 21.11 points, or 0.4%, to 5,402.15
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 faded 2.05 points to 5,517.88
