By Yoshiaki Nohara and Cheng Leng Sep 5, 2014 from Bloomberg

Japan’s Topix index fell, reversing earlier gains, as investors awaited the release of U.S. monthly employment data. Energy stocks led the decline.

Inpex Corp., Japan’s No. 1 energy explorer, slid 1.9 percent as oil headed for a weekly drop. Artiza Networks Inc., which develops hardware and software products, plunged 7.3 percent after projecting a slump in net income. Sekisui House Ltd. jumped 2.2 percent after the homebuilder said its half-year profit climbed.

The Topix fell 0.3 percent to 1293.21 at the close in Tokyo after rising as much as 0.6 percent. Shares rose earlier after the yen fell to an almost six-year low following the European Central Bank’s decision to cut interest rates and start buying assets. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 0.1 percent today to 15668.68.

“Investors couldn’t keep buying a lot ahead of the U.S. jobs data and they sold to lock in profit once the market stopped climbing,” said Toshiyuki Kanayama, Tokyo-based senior market analyst at Monex Inc. “The overall environment isn’t bad. The yen’s drop has been the main driver for the market’s rebound this week.”

Today’s monthly Labor Department jobs report will show that U.S. companies boosted payrolls in August by more than 200,000 for a seventh straight month, according to a Bloomberg survey. Nonfarm payrolls saw an addition of 230,000 workers in August, after an increase of 209,000 in July, according to the median of economists’ estimates.

Global Stimulus

The Topix rebounded 13 percent from its April 14 close and is 0.7 percent away from wiping out its decline for the year as central banks supported growth with stimulus measures globally, and on speculation Japan’s public pension fund will buy more local stocks. The measure rose 1.2 percent this week after Yasuhisa Shiozaki was named health minister on Sept. 3 to overhaul the $1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration gave its clearest signal yet of concern about damage to the economy from April sales-tax increase, with the finance minister saying that a back-up plan for stimulus will be prepared.

The ECB unexpectedly cut benchmark and deposit rates by 10 basis points to 0.05 percent and minus 0.2 percent, respectively. The central bank will purchase privately owned securities, boosting the flow of funding for the euro-area economy. The move boosted European stocks and sent two-year note yields below zero in eight countries.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.3 percent today. The underlying equity gauge lost 0.2 percent yesterday as energy producers sank with oil prices to overshadow the ECB’s stimulus.

Weaker Yen

The yen lost 0.1 percent after sliding as low as 105.71 per dollar, its weakest level since October 2008. Toyota Motor Corp., a carmaker that gets three-quarters of its revenue overseas, added 0.5 percent to 6,115 yen.

Inpex slid 1.9 percent to 1,499 yen as West Texas Intermediate for October delivery headed for a weekly drop. Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. slid 0.7 percent to 4,085 yen.

Artiza Networks plunged 7.3 percent to 1,111 yen after saying its full-year net income will slump 67 percent to 255 million yen.

Sekisui House jumped 2.2 percent to 1,338.5 yen after its half-year net income increased 24 percent to 42 billion yen, beating the company’s forecast of 40 billion yen.

Renesas Electronics Corp. sank 2 percent to 950 yen as the rating of the semiconductor manufacturer was cut to underperform from neutral at Macquarie Research.

Trading volume on the Topix (TPX) was 2 percent above the 30-day average. The measure traded at 1.2 times book value today, compared with 2.7 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 1.9 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index yesterday.

For more on this story go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-05/topix-close-to-erasing-year-s-loss-as-yen-weakens.html

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