(RTTNews) - With a stronger yen weighing on exporters, the Japanese stock market drifted lower in early trades on Monday. However, with investors stepping in at lower levels, the market has edged up into positive territory subsequently and is currently trading with a modest gain.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which had declined to 9,732 in early trades, recovered to 9,837 subsequently and is currently up 11.7 points, or 0.12%, at 9,801.

Shares of exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. saw some heavy selling in early trades with investors reacting to the yen’s sharp appreciation.

Shares of Citizen Holdings Co. rose sharply after the watchmaker said Friday evening it expects group pretax profit to rise about seven-fold to 5.5 billion yen in the year ending March, rather than to 2.5 billion yen as previously forecast. For the April-September half, the company logged a group net profit of 1.1 billion yen. It had earlier forecast a loss of 1.1 billion yen. Citizen saw a group net profit of 6.1 billion yen in April-September 2008. The stock is currently trading over 10% up on its previous closing price.

Non-life insurers Tokio Marine Holdings and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Holdings moved higher on better-than-expected April-September group earnings results.

Shares of Kubota Corp. edged higher after the firm said Friday evening that its fiscal 2009 group net profit would likely fall less than it had expected. The equipment manufacturer now projects that net profit will slide 14% on the year to 41.5 billion yen, better than the previously expected 40 billion yen. The stock is trading as much as 6% up on its previous close.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the upper 89-yen level early Monday in Tokyo after hitting a three-week local high of 89.60-yen Friday in New York. In early trades, the dollar fetched 89.86-89.90 yen against Friday’s close of 89.83-89.93 yen in New York and 90.45-90.46 yen in Tokyo.

Among other stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan are trading notably higher, while New Zealand and Shanghai up with modest gains. Markets in the region had closed notably higher on Friday.

On Wall Street, a subdued reaction to monthly employment figures kept the major averages near the unchanged mark on Friday. The market remained week initially on the heels of the release of a report from the Labor Department that showed employment fell by more than expected in the month of October. However, it moved higher later on in the day on bargain hunting and ended with modest gains.

The Dow closed up 17.5 points, or 0.2%, at 10,023.4, the Nasdaq advanced 7.1 points, or 0.3%, to 2,112.4 and the S&P 500 rose 2.7 points, or 0.3%, to 1,069.3.

Major European markets saw little change Friday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and the German DAX index edged up 0.3% and 0.1% respectively, while the French CAC 40 Index finished with a very small loss.

Crude oil dropped on Friday as discouraging jobs data raised energy demand concerns. Light sweet crude for December moved to US$77.43, down US$2.19 on the session.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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