Nikkei eases but supported by gains in defensives
25/06/2012 at 02:51
TOKYO, June 25 Reuters - Japan's Nikkei share average dipped on Monday, with defensive stocks helping to offset global jitters as euro zone policymakers appeared no closer to resolving the region's sovereign debt crisis heading into another European summit this week. The Nikkei eased 0.05 percent to 8,793.75, while the broader Topix was flat at 751.13. Telecommunications firm KDDI was the top weighted gainer, up 1.8 percent, while peer NTT DoCoMo rose 0.9 percentAstellas Pharma Inc rose 1.7 percent after the drugmaker received approval for additional use of its Symbicort Trubuhaler drug treatment for adult bronchial asthma in Japan. "On the European side, you have concerns about the summit. It's not if they have not had the repeated chances to get together to talk about this," said Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist at CLSA. "On the Japanese side, you have got the likely vote on the consumption tax. It might be tense and certainly low volume is suggesting there isn't much commitment from investors until they get these two issues resolved." Domestic media reported the Democrats and the opposition have agreed in principle to vote on Tuesday on a bill aimed at doubling the 5 percent sales tax by 2015. The benchmark Nikkei has rallied 6.7 percent since hitting a six-month low on June 4, but is still down n early 13 p ercent on the quarter, hurt by concerns about the deepening euro zone sovereign debt crisis and slowing global growth. Weighing on the market on Monday was weakness in economic-sensitive sectors, with mining down 3 percent and shippers off 1.2 percent
Plant engineering firm Chiyoda Corp fell 3.1 percent to a near three-week low, extending Friday's 3.3 percent drop on concerns that development of the Browse liquefied natural gas project in Australia would be delayed. Chiyoda is part of a joint venture that has been awarded for a front-end engineering and design contract for the onshore component of the project. Reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Kim Coghill dominic.lau@thomsonreuters.com+81 3 6441 1917Reuters Messaging: dominic.lau.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net Keywords: MARKETS JAPAN STOCKS/