Tokyo stocks seen opening down, trade may be thin

TOKYO, Apr 12 (Reuters) Tokyo stocks are seen opening lower on Thursday with technology shares such as Sony Corp. down following a fall in similar U.S. stocks, and trade may be thin as investors wait to see corporate earnings results.

Another focus in the market may be Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

The Nikkei business daily reported Japan's biggest drugmaker would likely post a group net profit of 330 billion yen for the business year ended last month, up 5 percent year-on-year to beat Takeda's forecast for a drop of 1 percent.

''The opening is likely to be influenced by the U.S. market, which will likely once again remind investors of the worse-than-expected machinery data,'' said Yosuke Shimizu, head of investment information centre at Monex.

U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday with the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index declining 0.74 percent to close at 2,459.31.

Shares of Fanuc Ltd. and other machine makers fell following downbeat machinery orders data in the previous session in Japan.

Shimizu said recent thin trade volume shows a lack of direction in the market, and investors are likely to take their cues from corporate earnings results coming out soon and the U.S. economic outlook.

Trade remained slow on Wednesday, with fewer than 2 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo exchange's first section for the fourth straight session.

Nikkei futures pointed to a fall in the market. Contracts expiring in June finished at 17,640 in Chicago, a decline of 60 points from the close in Osaka.

The Nikkei is likely to move between 17,550 and 17,700 on Thursday, market participants said.

The benchmark closed up 0.03 percent at 17,670.07 in the previous session.

Japanese companies set to report earnings results on Thursday include Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. and Seven&I Holdings Co. Ltd.

STOCKS TO WATCH -- Lawson Inc. T> Lawson, Japan's second-biggest convenience store chain after Seven&I Holdings' Seven-Eleven Japan, forecast a weaker-than-expected 3.1 percent rise in its operating profit for the year to February after its profit edged up 1.5 percent last business year. nT132964] -- Fujifilm Holdings Corp. T> A unit of Japan's Fujifilm said on Wednesday it will tie up with Israel's Given Imaging in the endoscope business, taking on market leader Olympus Corp. ] -- Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. T> Sanyo said on Wednesday it is set to book a loss of 2.04 billion yen in its earnings for the year that just ended to cover part of the cost to recall mobile phone batteries.

-- Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd T> Japan's biggest drugmaker said on Wednesday it is not currently in discussions with Abbott Laboratories Inc. about buying out Abbott's stake in their 50-50 U.S. joint venture.

Takeda President Yasuchika Hasegawa also told Reuters in an interview that the drug maker, which embarked on its first-ever share buybacks in the last business year, would reexamine its share-buyback methodology.

Separately, the Nikkei business daily reported that Takeda would likely post a group net profit of 330 billion yen for the business year ended last month, up 5 percent year-on-year to beat Takeda's forecast for a drop of 1 percent.

-- Toshiba Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.

A joint venture between Toshiba and Matsushita said on Wednesday it aimed to launch TV-use organic light-emitting diode panels in three years, taking aim at a billion market dominated by LCD and plasma panels.

REUTERS DKS PM0521