Nikkei seen rangebound; Greek uncertainty weighs
08/02/2012 at 00:21
TOKYO, Feb 8 Reuters - Japan's Nikkei average looked likely to remain rangebound on Wednesday after Greek leaders delayed a decision yet again on unpopular terms of a new European bailout, casting a cloud over recently strong U.S. economic dataMarket players said the benchmark Nikkei was likely to trade between 8,900 to 9,000 on Wednesday after Nikkei futures in Chicago closed at 8,940, up 40 points or 0.4 percent from the close in Osaka
"There is heavy resistance at the 9,000 level ahead of the options settlement later this week and as market participants watch developments out of Greece," said Yumi Nishimura, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities
Greece postponed a decision on painful terms of a crucial 130 billion euro bailout as the clock ticks towards a Feb. 15 deadline when the package must be approved by the euro zone, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, market participants said global markets remained optimistic that a Greek deal would be reached, pointing to the euro's gains against the dollar overnight
"Despite uncertainty about the Greek situation, global markets have remained steady, with the recently positive economic data out of the United States supporting gains for the time being," said Nishimura
U.S. indexes edged up overnight, buoyed by Coca-Cola Co , which posted better-than-expected quarterly results, while technology bluechips like Apple and Microsoft also logged gains
According to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, around two-thirds of the 128 Nikkei companies that posted earnings as of Tuesday failed to meet market expectations, compared to just one-third of S&P 500 companies
On Tuesday, the Nikkei eased 0.1 percent to 8,917.52 after hitting a three-month closing high in the previous session, while the broader Topix added 0.4 percent to 772.77
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--RENESAS, FUJITSU, PANASONIC The Nikkei newspaper said on Wednesday that Renesas Electronics Corp , Fujitsu Ltd and Panasonic Corp are in discussions to combine their system chip operations
--ELPIDA Elpida Memory Inc is likely to move its production base for low-priced dynamic random access memory DRAM chips to Taiwan to cut costs, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Edwina Gibbs mari.saito@thomsonreuters.com+81 3 6441 1934 Reuters Messaging: mari.saito.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net Keywords: MARKETS JAPAN STOCKS