Tokyo electronics sector gains on weak yen

The Japanese equities markets were significantly higher on Friday. The Nikkei 225 added 1.3 percent to 17,057.01, while the Topix index gained 1.7 percent to 1,685.27. Export-focused sectors were largely responsible for the gains, helped out by a weaker yen.

The electronics sector was up 2 percent as a whole. Hitachi added 1.3 percent to ¥790, while Sony gained 2.4 percent to ¥5,560 and Matsushita Electric Industrial was 3.3 percent higher to ¥2,385. Matsushita, which makes the Panasonic brand of consumer electronics, had seen losses earlier in the week in connection to its announced plans to build a new factory to manufacture plasma displays.

The automobile manufacturing sector was also 2 per cent higher, with Toyota up 2.1 percent to ¥7,820.

The banking sector was 2.5 percent higher ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting to decide on interest rates, scheduled for next week. Mitsubishi UFJ gained 2.7 percent to ¥1,510,000.

Telecommunications companies had mixed results on the session. NTT DoCoMo added 0.5 percent to ¥193,000, while KDDI was 3.1 percent higher to ¥808,000 on new data that showed its share of the mobile phone market higher since October. Softbank, however, dropped 1 percent to ¥2,460.

In the retail sector, Fast Retailing dropped 13.6 percent to ¥9,600 when it reduced its full-year profit expectations.

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