Market Update
Asian shares traded mixed Tuesday with the Australian market touching a multi-week low ahead of a decision on interest rates by the country's central bank.
At the time of writing, the Nikkei was up 0.6%. The Hang Seng slipped 0.7%, reacting to weak U.S. jobs data as it opened for trading after an extended weekend. The Shanghai Composite also gave up gains but was just holding up 0.1%. The Sensex rose 0.2% on opening while the S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.6%.
Japanese indexes were supported by power companies that had plunged sharply yesterday.
Stocks on the Move
Tokyo Electric Power Company rose 6.8% after the government's chief spokesman said authorities were trying to avoid bankruptcy for the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. The stock plunged more than 25% yesterday.
Other utilities that also closed down yesterday recovered some of their losses. The Kansai Electric Power Co was up 3% and Chubu Electric Power gained 2.8%.
Toyota was up 1.2% after a media report that said the company would increase output of its Prius hybrid by 70% on strong demand for the vehicle.
Consumer electronics giants Toshiba rose 2% after it said it was in talks with Sony Corp. to unify operations of their liquid-crystal display, or LCD units, into a new entity that could potentially bid for rival Sharp Corp.
Shares of Sharp rose 1.4%.
But shares of Sony fell 1.8% as a group of hackers calling themselves Lulz Security said they had broken into the company's computer systems again and posted the results on the internet.
Camera-maker Canon was down 3.2% on the completion of its planned buyback of 50 billion yen worth of its own shares between May 26 and June 3.
Financials were the worst performers in Hong Kong as Agricultural Bank of China dipped almost 1% and China Construction Bank lost 0.4%.
The Mumbai market opened a shade higher, lacking major cues. Cipla, Reliance Infrastructure and DLF all gained over 1% each while HDFC, Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda fell between 0.6% and 0.8%.
The Australian benchmark lost ground ahead of a key interest rate decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia with the country's four major banks trading up to 0.5% lower.
Energy and mining companies BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Newcrest Mining were down 1%, 0.7% and 1.5% each, respectively, weighed down by weaker commodity prices.