Little movement in Asia equities

There was little change in the equities markets in Tokyo on Friday as money just seemed to be shuffled between sectors.

Technology stocks continued to climb on good US earnings reports in the sector, but heavily domestic sectors such as real estate, retailing, and wholesaling saw declines.

Sharp was up 1.2 percent to ¥1,746 on its introduction of an innovative new LCD television screen that allows different channels to be shown on the two half of the screen.

Livedoor, the Internet services company, gained 0.5 percent to ¥438 when it announced that it will apply for one of the mobile licenses expected to be granted by the Japanese government this year. Toshiba was up 1.4 percent to ¥447.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi, Japan’s two largest trading houses, saw declines after an announcement by Royal Dutch/Shell that there would be construction delays and higher costs for the two companies’ joint venture liquefied natural gas project.

Mitsui lost 3.3 percent to ¥1,031 and Mitsubishi fell 1.35 percent to ¥1,538. Chugai Pharmaceutical, however, was up by 2.3 percent to ¥1,741 on news that its net profit doubled in the first half due to sales of its flu drug, Tamiflu.

Story link: Little movement in Asia equities