Nikkei unruffled by weak GDP, investors eye stimulus

* Volume hits 8-month low on Nikkei and Topix
    * Japan quarterly GDP weak but investors shrug it off
    * Sharp continues its descent
    * Nippon Sheet Glass bounces after report on Vietnam

    By Sophie Knight
    TOKYO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
barely flinched on Monday as investors shrugged off data showing
lower-than-expected gross domestic product growth but held off
from selling on hopes of stimulus measures to boost growth.
    Stocks that advanced on Friday continued their rise, with
online gaming firm DeNA Co Ltd gaining 2.1 percent
after soaring 22.1 percent on Friday due to strong results.
Others continued their descent from last week, leaving the index
largely unchanged as volume slipped to an eight-month low. 
    The Nikkei dipped 0.1 percent to 8885.15, stifled as
August's event calendar hit a lull and Japanese holidays this
week thinned out volumes. The index marked its biggest weekly
gain since February last week, rising 3.9 percent on speculation
that more global stimulus was on its way. 
    "At the moment we're just waiting - if the U.S. data out in
the latter half of the week is good, then it will allow the yen
to soften against the dollar, which would be a positive," said
Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan. 
    Investors are looking to a raft of data from the United
States this week, including jobless claims, retail sales and a
Philadelphia Fed Survey, for clues on whether a slowdown in the
world's largest economy has bottomed out.
    The Nikkei barely moved after data showed Japanese GDP grew
just 0.3 percent in the April-June quarter, translating to an
annualised increase of 1.4 percent, below the median forecast of
2.5 percent. 
    "You could say it's a sign that the government hasn't yet
put together a proper reconstruction budget," said Hideyuki
Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust, referring to work to rebuild after
2011's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
     "But low growth is really down to the unseasonably cold and
wet weather in April to June, which delayed sales of summer
goods. The results should balance out by the end of the year."
    Construction-related stocks that should have benefited from
the reconstruction drive were suffering from overly confident
forecasts.
     Taiheiyo Cement Co lost 4.5 percent after the
company reported a first-quarter operating profit of 490 million
yen ($6.3 million), less than half of the consensus, while Daiwa
House Industry Co Ltd dropped 3.9 percent as investors
deemed its 50 billion yen ($639 million) purchase of contractor
Fujita too expensive.
    Daiwa House's guidance that its operating profit can improve
to 6 billion yen "is optimistic judging from the situation at
other construction companies," Deutsche Securities analysts Yoji
Otani and Akiko Komine wrote in a note.
    The broader Topix closed flat at 746.95 , with the
number of traded shares at just 65 percent of its 90-day
average, the lowest since Dec. 30. Volume on the Nikkei was 58.1
percent of its 90-day average, also the lowest since the last
trading day of 2011. 
    
    YEARNING FOR BETTER EARNINGS
    Japan's earnings season, now in its last throes, has been
largely disappointing, with 53 percent of the 152 Nikkei
companies that have reported results falling short of guidance.
Many firms have cut full-year profit outlooks due to a strong
yen and the impact of a global slowdown on demand. 
    Some companies that were punished for revising guidance have
recovered slightly, due to other news. Sony Corp.,
which  took a hit after cutting its full-year outlook, gained
after saying on Friday it would make internet provider So-net
Entertainment into a wholly owned unit.
. Shares of Sony rose 2.7 percent that day and
another 0.2 percent on Monday.     
    So-net remained untraded with a glut of buy orders, although
it was nominally trading at 472,000 yen, a jump of 17.2 percent.
    Nippon Sheet Glass Co Ltd climbed 10.7 percent
after the Nikkei business daily said the company would resume
the construction of a Vietnamese touch screen panel plant after
halting it in February due to bad business conditions. 
    Worse-than-expected sales forced the glassmaker to cut its
full-year sales forecast, for which it was dragged down 14.2
percent on Aug. 3. 
    Sharp Corp dropped 4.3 percent, continuing a sharp
descent triggered by a downward revision of its full-year
guidance, despite a Nikkei business daily report on Saturday
that it is considering selling its liquid crystal display (LCD)
modules to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry.
    Market analysts said the market was likely to remain in
"holiday mode" this week, characterised by thin trade due to a
lack of catalysts.
    "It's going to be defined by technical parameters this
week," said Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex. 
   "There's quite significant resistance at the 200-day moving
average mark around 8,957; it tested that level last week and
quickly backed away, and this week there doesn't seem to be any
factors that will push it beyond that."
    The Nikkei is up 5.1 percent on the year, but is still 13.4
percent off its one-year high of 10,255.15 hit on March 27, hurt
by concerns about falling global demand.   
    Despite the sharp gain in the first quarter and sell-off in
the second quarter, intraday volatility has eased sharply this
year. Daily swings in the Nikkei have exceeded 2.5 percent for
only four trading sessions so far this year, down from 16 for
all of 2011. That compared with one such day for the U.S. S&P
500 and 33 such sessions for the Euro STOXX 50

from:njytouch
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