Feb 19, 2021
Shareholders are cheering the record share price of Fast Retailing Co., the operator of casual fashion giant Uniqlo that’s just become the most valuable apparel retailer in the world.
But some other market observers are sounding notes of caution over the stock’s ever-increasing influence on the 225-issue Nikkei average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as technical changes caused by its recent highs raise its already-outsized impact on the blue-chip gauge.
A fivefold increase in Fast Retailing’s tick size the minimum amount by which the stock can move up or down and a surge in its weighting in the index mean the Nikkei’s rise is increasingly intertwined with that of the casual clothing firm, even as Japanese stocks look to test record bubble-era highs.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Tops 30,000 for First Time Since 1990
Bloomberg 2/15/2021 Gearoid Reidy and Min Jeong Lee
(Bloomberg) Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average topped 30,000 yen for the first time since August 1990, as it continued its charge back up through levels not seen since the collapse of the bubble economy.
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The gauge rose 1.9% to close at 30,084.15 on Monday, amid signs an economic recovery is intact at home and hopes of progress in U.S. stimulus talks. While equities globally have hit new heights in recent months, the Nikkei 225 still needs to gain almost 30% to surpass its record of 38,915.87. That was reached in the final trading session of 1989, before the index went on to lose more than half its value in three years after the economic bubble burst.
SoftBank Rides Recovery on Vision Fund Performance PUBLISHED BY
SoftBank Group Corp’s
net profit went up to $11.1 billion (¥1.17 trillion) in the third quarter on the back of stock rallies and asset sales, which has helped the conglomerate to make a dramatic recovery in fortunes.
Net profit for October-December is more than 21 times higher than the ¥55 billion reported a year earlier, SoftBank said. It surpassed analysts’ forecasts of a net profit of ¥98.5bn.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund recorded its best performance since its launch in 2017. The Japanese tech conglomerate’s two Vision Funds reported a $13 billion gain in the value of their investments during the three months to December, helped by the pandemic-induced boost in holdings of ride-hailing group
Published on: Tuesday, February 09, 2021
By: AFP
A pedestrian walks past a shop of SoftBank Group along a street in Tokyo.
TOKYO: SoftBank Group on Monday said net profit rocketed to $11.1 billion in the third quarter as stock rallies and asset sales helped it solidify its recovery.
Net profit for October-December hit 1,171.9 billion yen, more than 21 times higher than the 55.0 billion yen reported a year earlier, the conglomerate said.
Despite the results, it said it would not provide “forecasts of consolidated results of operations as they are difficult to project due to numerous uncertainties affecting earnings”.
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But the economic crisis that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic has worked largely in SoftBank’s favour, with rallies in tech stocks it owns and rising valuations for firms in its portfolio suited to the era, including food delivery.