Tokyo Markets

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE SILVER WEEK

After 3 consecutive days of modest gains the Nikkei slipped into negative territory, taking cues from Wall Street which also closed down after reaching a fresh new yearly high on Wednesday.
Nikkei ended the day 10,370, down 0.73% from Thursday's close.
Investors were somewhat sidelined today, hesitant to take on any strong position ahead of the long 5-day weekend in Japan.
Kinda makes sense since as soon as the holiday ends a slew of midterm earnings reports will be released.

Speaking of the yen, it’s eased off slightly to the lower 91 range.
It's still a strong yen to the greenback, though.

ご利用は計画的に

In the morning session we saw the Nikkei slip 152 points.
Consumer credit firm Aiful officially sought a debt reprieve—ie asking its lenders if it can delay making its own loan payments. (!!!)
This came as a slight shock to investors as just this week the new bank minister Kamei announced he is preparing to allow more leeway for small businesses to pay back *its* loans--something that was already raising a few eyebrows.

So Aiful's application for an extension triggered a rush to sell shares of Aiful and other similar consumer credit companies like Promise and Takefuji.
Aiful plunged 27% to its stop price of 134.
Promise and Takefuji each fell over 10% at one point, though they rebounded from their lows by closing time.

The losses carried over to the mega-Banks, who are the ones that lend to these consumer financials.
Aiful lenders Sumitomo Trust and Aozora lost 1.5% and 2% respectively.

HONESTY PAYS OFF

But in the afternoon session saw that Banks were the second best performing sector today, with Mitsubishi UFJ, MUFG and Sumitomo Mitsui finishing up.

One analyst I spoke to says this is due to Deputy Prime Minister Kan’s comments in the afternoon.
Kan said Japan must continue to face the economic crisis seriously despite positive data we may see overseas.
The frankness of the comment seemed to lift sentiment in the banking sector somewhat.

That’s it!

I ♥ MONEY.