Wednesday May 14, 02:52 AM
Tokyo shares open mixed on Wall Street's lead - UPDATE
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japanese shares were mixed in early trade on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's performance overnight, although a weaker yen encouraged some buying in export-related stocks.
The dollar was last quoted
at 104.80 yen, up more than 1 yen from 103.60-63 yen at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
'Most investors found little incentive to take fresh positions because of uncertainty about the impact of a big earthquake in China on the Japanese economy, and that of rising oil prices,' said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Management.
U.S. stocks finished mixed on Tuesday after a fresh report on retail sales and a new oil price record showed investors the same scenario in which the economy is hurting and costs are rising, but that things could be worse.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that turmoil in financial markets has eased somewhat, citing improvements in markets for certain mortgage-backed securities, but he also said the situation remains 'far from normal.'
At 9:45 a.m. (0015 GMT), the Nikkei (news) 225 Stock Average was up 11.26 points or 0.08 percent at 13,964.18. It opened up 8.23 points or 0.1 percent.
Major office equipment maker Canon (Berlin: CNN1.BE - news) rose 0.9 percent to 5,460 yen, Honda Motor (Paris: JP3854600008 - news) climbed 1.6 percent to 3,270 yen and major digital camera manufacturer Nikon (Berlin: NKN.BE - news) gained 1.6 percent at 3,240 yen.
Sega Sammy Holdings lost 3.9 percent to 1,141 yen after the holding company for video game publisher Sega and pachinko slot machine maker Sammy reported a net loss for the year ended March.
Japan Airlines edged 0.4 percent higher to 249 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported that the carrier plans to cut base salaries and other benefits by 5 percent for 17,000 employees at core unit Japan Airlines International Co.
Pioneer Corp (Munich: 857040 - news) . tumbled 15.2 percent to 935 yen after the Nikkei newspaper quoted the Japanese audio visual equipment maker as saying it plans to cut roughly 2,000 jobs in Japan and abroad by the end of the fiscal 2008 as part of the restructuring of its plasma television operations.
($1 = 104.80 yen)
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