Issue closed up 0.4% at Y730 yesterday.
A decisive break of 117.50 would confirm major USD/JPY downtrend, says Deutsche Bank senior FX strategist Kenneth Landon in research report; notes USD/JPY just above very important uptrend line that began in mid-1995, which now comes in around 117 area. Such a break would also likely encourage momentum funds to actively sell USD/JPY, which could accelerate downmove and threaten 115.60 low set July 2002.
Offshore accounts at 11 foreign brokerages place net sell orders for 9.9 million Japanese shares overnight, according to foreign brokers; Second day of net sell orders negative for market open, but yen value of figures unknown, could be small. Sell orders total 24.3 million shares, while buy orders amount to 14.4 million shares.
Toray Industries may get lift from synthetic fiber maker may beat profit target for FY through March; cites lower labor costs and recovering demand for information and communications equipment materials. Nikkei says group operating profit to jump 75% on-year to Y33 billion, Y3 billion above company's estimate; predicts net profit up 58% to Y6 billion, and sales up 2% to Y1.04 trillion. Issue ended yesterday down 1.2% at Y257.
Yahoo Japan likely to attract buying after saying yesterday to conduct 2-for-1 stock split May 20 for shareholders registered as of March 31; move aims to lower per-share price and boost liquidity. Issue ended yesterday up 4.1% at Y2.03 million.
Asahi Glass May Rise; China PDP Report
Asahi Glass may benefit from Nikkei report firm set to produce and market PDP optical filters in China; report says unit to be set up in Shanghai by end of April next year will have capacity to produce 600,000 units in first year; says company expects global demand to climb to 1.5 million units FY03 and 3-4 million units FY05, up from current 800,000 units.