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Equity Market News 19th May 2012

Equity Org Headlines:

Essar Energy adds 3 percent in mostly lower London energy sector

Antofagasta leads miners higher in London

Hunting plc leads energy sector lower

Sports Direct International leads London retailers higher

Pace plc drops 40 percent on profits warning

Royal Bank of Scotland leads London banks lower

Royal Bank of Scotland leads banks, FTSE 100 higher in London

Lloyds Banking Group drops 8 percent on first-quarter loss

Lloyds shares down on PPI claims

Aquarius Platinum adds 7 percent amid mostly lower mining sector

12/09/05

Permalink 05:21:08 pm, Categories: Tokyo Nikkei & Topix, Finance, Insurance, 267 words  

Japanese elections boost Tokyo indices

The Tokyo equities markets were up substantially on the landslide election victory Sunday of Prime Minister Junichiro Kozumi’s Liberal Democratic party, as foreign investors seemed particularly enthusiastic in the post-election buying.

Upward revision of second-quarter gross domestic product figures also helped the markets to their gains. GDP growth was put at 0.8 percent in the second quarter, up from the original figures of 0.3 percent.

The Nikkei 225 was up 1.6 percent to 12,896.43, while the Topix index gained 1.3 percent to 1,309.80.

The LDP won 296 seats in the lower house of parliament, the first single-party majority there in 15 years. In addition the LDP’s coalition partner, the New Komeito party, won 31 seats, bringing administration-friendly seats to more than two-thirds of the lower house. Analysts say that this all but guarantees that the prime minister’s postal privatization bill will pass when it is reintroduced in the autumn.

Domestic sectors that figure to benefit the most from the recovery of the Japanese economy, which is expected to go forward after the election’s outcome, saw gains on the day.

Insurers gained the most on the day, with the sector rising by 3.9 percent. Other domestic sectors seeing advances included construction companies, which gained 1.8 percent; retailers, up 2 percent; real estate, which rose by 2.6 percent; and banking, which advanced by 2.8 percent. The biggest individual gainer came from the banking sector, when Mizuho gained 4.4 percent to ¥640,000.

Outside of the domestically-oriented sectors, the nation’s largest systems integrator, NTT Data, gained 8.4 percent to ¥424,000 on the expectation that it will experienced increased demand after post office privatization. Additionally, Yamada Denki, Japan’s largest discount electronics retailer, added 8.7 percent to ¥8,530.

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