Japan companies fend off slowdown in U.S. economy

Nippon Steel, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, added 4.2 percent to 493 yen, the highest close since March 6. Kyodo News said on March 23 the company will increase hiring next year to boost production capacity and expand business overseas.

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Resona Holdings Inc., the nation's fourth-largest publicly traded bank, jumped 6.6 percent to 179,000 yen, leading a gain by financial companies. The Tokyo-based bank has decided to sell its headquarters for about 150 billion yen, the Nikkei reported today, without citing anyone.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. slumped 5.4 percent to 1,063 yen, the biggest decline among companies on the MSCI World Index. Millea Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest insurance company by value, lost 4.4 percent to 3,710 yen. A gauge that tracks insurers had the steepest drop among the 33 industry groups on the Topix.

Sentiment among large Japanese businesses fell to minus 9.3 points this quarter from 0.5 three months earlier, the government said today just before the market opened. A negative number means pessimists outnumbered optimists.

Trading volume on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was the lowest for a full trading day this year.

Nikkei futures expiring in June climbed 0.2 percent to 12,410 in Osaka and gained 0.1 percent to 12,410 in Singapore.

Tokyo stock Price IndeX, commonly known as TOPIX, along with Nikkei 225, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, tracking all domestic companies of the exchange's First Section.

The index transitioned from a system where a company's weighting is based on the total number of shares outstanding (commonly called the float) to a weighting based on the number of shares available for trading (called the free float). This transition took place in three phases starting in October 2005 and being completed in June 2006. Although the change is a technicality, it had a significant effect on the weighting of many companies in the index because many companies in Japan have significant holds of shares of their business partners as a part of intricate business alliances, and such shares will no longer be included in calculating the weight of companies in the index.

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