Japan’s Topix index rose for a fourth day led by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (8306)after Credit Suisse Group AG raised the lender’s share price estimate. Tokyo Electric Power Co. gained on a report other utilities may be asked to share the cost of the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s largest publicly traded bank, advanced 1.9 percent. Tokyo Electric, operator of the Fukushima reactors crippled by last month’s earthquake and tsunami, surged as much 11 percent. Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), an internet portal partly owned by Softbank Corp. (9984), jumped 4.4 percent after Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its investment rating. Sumco Corp. (3436) gained 1.3 percent after the maker of silicon wafers for semiconductors said output will recover to pre-quake levels by May.
“Companies are reporting they’re restarting production or recovering from the quake and that means we’re getting a better idea of what results will be like,” said Ryuta Otsuka, a strategist at Toyo Securities Co. in Tokyo. “There’s a sense that trade is starting to move again.”
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.4 percent to 9,716.73 as of 12:35 p.m. in Tokyo. The broader Topix index gained 0.3 percent to 844.67. Nine stocks rose for every five that fell.
The Topix declined 9.5 percent through April 22 after a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 devastated Japan’s northeast coast, disabled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, and disrupted supply chains at companies from Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) to chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp. In the same period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose about 3.3 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.9 percent.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Tepco
Mitsubishi UFJ advanced 1.9 percent to 382 yen after Credit Suisse raised the lender’s share price estimate to 413 yen from 346 yen, citing improved earnings. Net income at the bank will rise to 742.5 billion yen ($9 billion) in the year ending March 2012, compared with an earlier forecast for 522.4 billion yen, Credit Suisse analyst Shinichi Ina wrote in a report.
Tokyo Electric rose 8.7 percent to 439 yen, the utility’s first gain in eight days, after Nomura said a possible government plan to compensate victims of the Fukushima accident may force other utilities to contribute. The Nikkei said on April 23 the government is in the final stages of drafting a plan to create an organization made up of utilities and other nuclear-related businesses to compensate evacuees and businesses from around the damaged nuclear plant.
Yahoo Japan, Sumco
Yahoo Japan climbed 4 percent to 29,620 yen after Nomura analyst Yuko Maruyama raised her rating on the company to “buy” from “neutral.” Advertising revenue has been stronger than expected after last month’s disaster and profit in the current quarter period will likely rise, Maruyama said.
Softbank, which owns 36 percent of Yahoo Japan, rose 0.7 percent to 3,425 yen.
Sumco advanced 1.3 percent to 1,619 yen. The company said production will recover in May to pre-quake levels.
Toyota also gained 0.3 percent to 3,305 yen after the automaker said it will begin restoring production levels from July in Japan and from August at overseas plants. Output for all models will return to normal as early November, Toyota said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Akiko Ikeda in Tokyo at iakiko@bloomberg.net; Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo at thasegawa6@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.
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