Japan Review – Nikkei Up as Mitsubishi Extended Gains

Following up prior day’s advance, Mitsubishi resumed its rally to reach 1,311 yen or up 2.66% on Friday. Nikon Corp led with 3.9% gains to close at 1,571. Nikon recently reported a $131 million annual profit which was attributed to partly to the new models of d-SLR and compact cameras that rose 33% (yoy) to 4.5 million units. Net profit was at 8.15 billion yen compared to the loss of 4 billion yen during the same quarter a year ago.

Meanwhile, Honda’s new hybrid is to be priced at 1.6 million yen to become the cheapest gasoline-electric car in Japan. Honda’s shares went up 2.07% to 2,912 yen. Elsewhere, Toyota launched its new production facility in Tacoma, San Antonio to build its best-selling pickup model. Toyota slightly up to 3,115 or gained 0.32%.

Nikkei average fell 0.1% to close the week at 9,642.12, setting the weekly gains of 1.1%.