Tokyo stocks edged lower on Thursday for the first time in six days as record-high crude oil prices weighed on manufacturers such as Canon Inc. <7751.T>, offsetting gains in energy issues like Nippon Oil Corp. <5001.T>. Some market participants said worries that oil's record-breaking rally to over $52 a barrel would eventually take its toll on the U.S. and Japanese economies were capping the upside for Japanese shares. But most attributed the decline to the need for a breather after the Nikkei rose almost 600 points in the past five days on an upswing in corporate sentiment and upward revisions to company earnings estimates. "Stocks have only edged down a little bit. If oil was a real concern then we would have seen U.S. stocks fall overnight," said Toshihiko Matsuno, assistant general manager at SMBC Friend Securities. "As long as Wall Street says it can cope with the rise in oil prices, then Japanese stocks are either going to maintain these levels or test new highs," he added.
The Nikkei average <.N225> ended down 0.27 percent or 30.79 points at 11,354.59 while the broader TOPIX index <.TOPX> fell 0.51 percent to 1,141.84. Both benchmarks had hit their highest closing levels since July 21 on Wednesday. U.S. light crude futures set an all-time high at $52.38 a barrel during Asian trade after first clearing the $52 hurdle in New York on news of a less-than-expected increase in U.S. crude supplies. "While I think that in the mid to long term, oil is going to keep trading at high levels, at over $52 a barrel, the near-term risk is rather one of a sharp sudden fall and that's probably why the Dow was so strong," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. Ltd. Tracking gains by U.S. energy stocks such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp. to 52-week highs, Japan's largest refiner, Nippon Oil, jumped 3.7 percent to 753 yen, after topping the 760 mark for the first time since June 2001. Nippon Mining Holdings <5016.T>, another major oil refiner, rose 2 percent to 599 yen. Oil producer and refiner AOC Holdings <5017.T> jumped 5.13 percent to 1,435 after raising its first-half earnings forecasts on Wednesday. Builders also rose after an upward earnings revision by Kajima Corp. <1812.T> lured investors looking for stocks with good value. But Canon, Japan's biggest office equipment maker, fell 1.46 percent to 5,400 yen after hitting an 11-week closing high the previous day.///