Skip navigation
Newswire

Japan Hot Stocks-Skymark, Kenwood, McDonalds Japan

TOKYO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The following stocks are on the move on Friday. **SKYMARK UP ON FTC RULING AGAINST BIGGER FIRMS**

Skymark Airlines Co Ltd up 11.9 percent or by its daily limit of 10,000 yen at 94,000.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission said on Thursday that fare reductions by Japan's top three airlines on three routes operated by Skymark and another start-up carrier may violate anti-monopoly laws and ordered them to take corrective action.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Skymark President Takashi Ide said the airline would turn a profit in the coming business year starting November after six straight years of losses, thanks partly to the fare ruling.

After the FTC ruling, Japan's second-largest airline, All Nippon Airways Co Ltd , said it planned to end discounts on three domestic routes between Tokyo and the Kyushu region.

ANA up 2.46 percent at 292 yen. 0525 GMT **KENWOOD UP ON CAPITAL PLAN, TSE HALTS TRADING**

Kenwood Corp up four yen or 4.6 percent at 91 on a newspaper report about a capital increase at the troubled audio equipment maker.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ordered a halt to trading in the shares as of 2.05 p.m. (0505 GMT)

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its evening edition that Kenwood would receive about 25 billion yen from Asahi Bank, a member bank of Daiwa Bank Holdings , through a debt-for-equity swap. It will also raise about two billion yen through a private placement of shares with Sparx Asset Management Co and another financial firm, the report said. 0520 GMT **MCDONALDS HITS NEW LIFE-LOW, SEEN OVERVALUED**

McDonalds Holdings Co (Japan) down 2.32 percent at 2,530 yen, after falling to a lifetime low of 2,520 yen.

The company's share price has been dogged by worries about its growth prospects since the outbreak of mad-cow disease last September that triggered a long sales slump.

In August McDonalds launched aggressive price cuts to its hamburgers to stem the decline in same-store sales.

Okasan Securities renewed a rating of "2-" on the stock on Friday, meaning the brokerage expects it to underperform the Topix index by zero to 10 percentage points over the next six months.

Analyst Kiyoshi Mori said that the stock was overvalued, adding that the company's sales slump would likely continue for now, with deflationary pressures making it difficult to raise per-customer revenues after the latest price cuts. 0438 GMT

**DAIDO LIFE UP, DEUTSCHE STARTS COVERAGE WITH BUY RATING**

Daido Life Insurance Co up 9.3 percent or 20,000 yen at 235,000 yen after Deutsche Securities started coverage on the stock with a "buy" rating and a target price of 270,000 yen.

Deutsche said Daido, which became Japan's first life insurer to go public in April, was attractive because it held a relatively small amount of shares compared to casualty insurers, which makes the firm's earnings less vulnerable to market swings.

The insurance sector subindex up 2.70 percent. 0410 GMT

**TOSHIBA UP FOLLOWING REPORT OF SMALLER LOSS**

Toshiba Corp up 4.11 percent at 380 yen, outperforming most of its peers after business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said its group operating loss for April-September will total five billion yen, compared with Toshiba's forecast of a 15 billion yen loss.

Japan's largest chipmaker would beat its forecast due to better-than-expected sales of semiconductors and notebook computers, the Nihon Keizai said.

Toshiba said in response to the report that it has not changed its earnings forecast for the half year. 0355 GMT **TOKYO DOME DOWN ON CRIME SYNDICATE TICKETS REPORT**

Baseball stadium and restaurant operator Tokyo Dome Corp down 6.29 percent at 283 yen after a newspaper reported that the company had given free tickets to one of Japan's biggest crime syndicates over a period of several years.

The tickets amounted to several tens of millions of yen worth a year, the Asahi Shimbun said on Friday.

A company spokesman, without commenting on the allegations, said the firm would hold a press conference about the report at 3:00 p.m. (0600 GMT).

Tokyo Dome is the home field for the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters. 0218 GMT **NTT DOCOMO HIGHER FOLLOWING OVERSEAS PEERS**

Japan's top wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo Inc, up 3.4 percent at 213,000 yen, following a strong advance by its European peers such as Vodafone Group Plc .

Shares in Britain's Vodafone and its domestic rival mmO2 Plc rose sharply on Thursday after an upbeat forecast on industry-wide mobile phone shipments from Nokia , the world's largest cellphone maker. 0155 GMT **MITSUBISHI EST, REAL ESTATE STOCKS UP ON TAX REFORM HOPES**

Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd and other real estate stocks continue to rise on hopes that the government will announce cuts in real-estate taxes in its anti-deflation package to be announced in October.

Mitsubishi up 4.27 percent at 1,002, rising for the third straight session. Top real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd up 3.18 percent at 1,037. Sumitomo Realty & Development Co Ltd up 7.77 percent at 721.

Ruling LDP policy chief Taro Aso told reporters on Wednesday the government should ease real estate taxes to promote trading and write-offs of assets whose prices have sharply depreciated over the past decade.

0150 GMT **ITO-YOKADO UP ON REPORT OF PROFIT JUMP**

Japan's largest retailing group Ito-Yokado Co Ltd up 3.68 percent at 5,070 yen.

It will likely see an 18 percent jump in group operating profit for the business year to February 2003, reaping steady profits from its convenience store unit, Seven-Eleven Japan Co Ltd , the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Friday. 0127 GMT **BANKS UP AFTER REPORT OF RCC BAD-LOAN PRICING CHANGES**

Shares in banks up after a newspaper report that Japan's top financial regulator plans to raise the price paid for bad loans by the Resolution and Collection Corp (RCC) to give banks an incentive to accelerate disposal of their mountains of bad loans.

Leading bank Mizuho Holdings Inc up 6.69 percent at 287,000 yen. UFJ Holdings Inc up 6.14 percent at 311,000 yen, helping lift the banking sector subindex 3.4 percent.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the Financial Services Agency will have the RCC, a bad-loan collecting body, change the pricing method for dud loans currently based on fair market value to net book value -- or the face value of a loan after subtracting any provisions set aside to cover potential losses. 0100 GMT **UNION TOOL DOWN AFTER PROFIT DOWNTURN**

Union Tool Co Ltd at 3,250 yen, down 13.33 percent from Thursday's close of 3,750, which was an 11-month low.

Union Tool, the world's leading manufacturer of drills used for printed circuit boards, said on Thursday its group net profit for the nine months to August 31 came in at 1.35 billion yen, 38 percent down on the same period last year.

0052 GMT **KANTO AUTO WORKS UP AFTER DOUBLING PROFIT FORECAST**

Kanto Auto Works Ltd up 5.47 percent at 636 yen after more than doubling its full-year group net profit forecast to 9.6 billion yen ($78.62 million).

For the six months to September 30, Kanto, an assembler of Toyota Motor Corp's compact cars for the domestic market, said it would post a group net profit of 6.6 billion yen, up more than 300 percent from the previous forecast of 1.6 billion yen. 0021 GMT **FUJI TV UP AFTER BOOSTING PROFIT FORECAST**

TV network operator Fuji Television Network Inc up 2.48 percent at 538,000 yen after boosting its group net profit forecast for the six months to September 30 by 60 percent to 8.8 billion yen ($72 million).

Fuji's full-year forecast was little changed from the previous estimate. 0013 GMT **CAPCOM ASK-ONLY AFTER LOSS WARNING** Videogame software producer Capcom Co Ltd ask-only at 2,845 yen, 2.7 percent below Thursday's close of 2,925 after which it made a loss warning.

The company now expects a group net loss of 17.8 billion yen ($145.8 million) for the six months to September 30, compared with a 1.1 billion yen profit in the previous forecast. 0004 GMT ($1=122.09 yen)