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Japanese stocks
lead Asian losses
A busINEssMAN looks at an electronic stocks board
showing the Nikkei key index of the Tokyo stock
Exchange (TsE) in front of a securities company
in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP
TOKYO — Asian shares fell
and the euro stuck near 3-week
lows against the dollar yesterday,
as investors shed riskier
assets after Greece's shock
call for a referendum stoked
fears about the viability of a
European debt deal struck just
last week.
Stocks wiped out all gains
made during the huge relief
rally last week that followed
an announcement that European
leaders had agreed a basic
framework to help reduce
Greece's huge debts, boost
the region's bailout fund and
strengthen banks.
Japanese stocks led Asian
losses, falling more than 2
per cent, but European shares
were expected to rebound
from Tuesday's sharp losses
on hopes that the US Federal
Reserve may signal more
measure to aid a fragile economic
recovery.
Safety bids supported
government bonds but weakened
Asian credit markets
and pushed oil prices sharply
down, while safe-haven gold
rose but was capped by a
firmer dollar.
Xiao Minjie, chief economist
at FuNNeX Asset Management
in Tokyo, said the
current environment was
worse than three years ago
when the collapse of Lehman
Brothers triggered a financial
market meltdown.
"Investors don't want to
take risks, halting both inflows
to and outflows from
funds," Xiao said.
"Lehman was a problem
of a single financial institution.
We now face an issue
of sovereign debt and fiscal
problems that is far more
complicated to resolve."
MSCI's broadest index of
Asia Pacific shares outside
Japan fell as much as 1.7 per
cent before recouping some
of the losses to fall 0.7 per
cent yesterday. Japan's Nikkei
share slid 2.2 per cent.
Financial bookmakers
in London called the FTSE
100 index to open up 0.7 per
cent, while Germany's DAX
was seen up 1 per cent and
France's CAC-40 up 1.2 per
cent. "European markets are
seen edging up on speculative
hopes of a dovish FOMC.
Hopes are for some sign of
further easing in the wings to
ensure that the US economic
recovery doesn't falter," said
Jonathan Sudaria, dealer at
Capital Spreads.
With concerns easing about
the risk of a hard landing in
China and a double-dip US
recession, Europe remained
a worry. "Europe remains a
source of risk," said Yonghao
Pu, chief investment strategist
at UBS Wealth Management
in a Reuters television interview.
— Reuters
Strong home shopping
helps Next defy gloom
LONDON — Surging online
sales helped Next , Britain's
No 2 clothing retailer, to offset
a tough third quarter at its
stores and keep its full-year
profit forecast despite the
gloom engulfing the retail
sector.
Next, which runs more
than 500 stores in Britain and
Ireland as well as the Directory
home shopping business,
said on Wednesday group
sales, excluding VAT sales
tax, rose 3.3 per cent, in the
three months to October 29.
That compared with analyst
forecasts in a range of
down 0.3 per cent to up 3.0
per cent and first half growth
of 3.2 per cent.
Sales at its stores dropped
3.3 per cent, and were down
around 8 per cent excluding
newly-opened shops. But this
was offset by a 16.9 per cent
leap in sales at Next Directory.
"A good third quarter sales
update ... that will reassure
investors after what has been
a difficult quarter as a result
of weather impacts/cautious
consumers," Espirito Santo
analysts wrote in a research
note.
Next shares climbed more
than 6 per cent in early trading,
the biggest rise by a European
blue chip stock. .
British retailers are mostly
struggling as shoppers' disposable
incomes are squeezed
by rising prices, muted wages
growth and government austerity
measures. — Reuters
TOKYO — Japan's top mobile
phone operator NTT DoCoMo
yesterday reported a fall in
first-half revenue and profit
but raised its earnings forecasts
on expectations of growing
smartphone sales.
9 INTERNATIONAL THURSdAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011
Japan’s top telecom operator NTT DoCoMo logs first-half fall in profits
DoCoMo's net profit for the
six months to September fell
3.5 per cent from a year earlier
to 299.0 billion yen ($3.8 billion),
the company said.
Operating profit fell 4.3 per
cent to 508.5 billion yen as
overall revenue edged down
1.2 per cent to 2.1 trillion yen.
Smartphone sales jumped
to 3.63 million units in the
first half, helping the company
achieve an 11.9 per cent rise to
10.35 million units in overall
sales volume of handsets. But
income from handset sales still
fell from a year earlier due to
lower wholesale prices.
DoCoMo's smartphone
lineup includes Galaxy models
by South Korea's Samsung
Electronic and Xperia by Sony
Ericsson. In Japan's highly
saturated mobile phone market,
the carrier is ramping up
efforts to grab a bigger slice
of the expanding smartphone
market led by Apple's iPhone,
which in Japan is carried by rivals
Softbank and KDDI.
DoCoMo raised its earnings
projections for the full
year to March 2012 on expected
growth in smartphone sales
and data revenues. — AFP