Japanese stocks closed flat on Thursday as light profit-taking in a number of blue chips offset gains in techs and telecoms, inspired in part by news that KDDI Corp <9433.T> is in talks to sell a wireless unit. The Nikkei average <.N225> finished up 0.12 percent at 11,166.03, adding to the previous day's 1.73 percent rise. But the broader TOPIX index <.TOPX> edged down 0.05 percent to 1,126.64. Analysts said investors had little incentive to buy, apart from the Nasdaq's <.IXIC> slight gain, and were taking a breather as Japan's corporate earnings season draws to an end. Ongoing concerns about possible terrorist attacks in the United States, oil price movements and prospects of a U.S. interest rate rise are also casting a pall over the market. A meeting of the oil producers' group OPEC and key U.S. jobs data, both due next week, were awaited, they said. One fund manager said, however, that the Tokyo market has the potential to rise as Japan Inc is expected to post double-digit profit growth again this business year.
Joji Maki, senior director at Baring Asset Management Japan, said although forecast-based price earnings ratios (PER) for first-section listed companies had fallen to 18, a level attractive for investors, many were hesitant. "It's a sentiment-driven market as most domestic institutions pay little attention to improved corporate and economic fundamentals. They are instead focused on external worries," Maki said. "You can easily tell how low their morale is from today's market movements." Trading slowed, with 1.017 billion shares changing hands on the first section, the lowest daily total since February 26, and down from 1.110 billion on Wednesday. Decliners outnumbered gainers 1,000 to 453.
TELECOMS NEWS
KDDI, Japan's second-biggest mobile phone operator, rose 3.28 percent to 630,000 yen after electronics parts maker Kyocera Corp <6971.T> said it and U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group were in talks to buy KDDI wireless phone service provider DDI Pocket. Investors expect the possible sale of its secondary wireless unit would benefit KDDI, whose main mobile arm is "au". Some analysts said the deal could be the first of a series of similar shakeups in a highly competitive, crowded industry. "(The deal means) a new stage of industry shakeups gets under way as Japan's long-moribund data communications market shows signs of a pickup. The market's potential has lured foreign capital and new comers," said Shinji Moriyuki, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. Third-ranked mobile phone operator Vodafone Holdings KK <9434.T> was up 5.63 percent at 300,000 yen, matching the bid price offered by its British parent, Vodafone Group Plc . The world's largest mobile phone group, which owns two-thirds of the Japanese unit, said this week it would launch a tender to buy the remaining shares it does not own at 300,000 yen.
Internet firm Softbank Corp <9984.T> was up 0.73 percent at 4,160 yen. Softbank is expected to soon unveil a deal, reportedly valued at $2.68 billion, to buy Japan Telecom Co, the country's third-largest fixed-line telecoms operator, from another U.S. buyout firm, Ripplewood Holdings LLC, in a bid to gain a foothold in the corporate telecoms business.///www.reuetrs.com