Nikkei down 0.3 percent as Casio drags

Tokyo, Oct 5: The Nikkei average shed 0.3 per cent on Friday, dragged lower by Casio Computer Co Ltd after it cut its full-year forecast, but received some support from KDDI Corp, which jumped after a brokerage upgraded the stock and put it on the conviction buy list.

Shares of Simplex Investments Advisors Inc soared 10.8 per cent to 144,000 yen on the Tokyo exchange's Mothers section for start-ups. Sources told Reuters that a major shareholder in the property investment company had put his 29 per cent stake up for sale, a move that could lead to a tender offer for the rest of the company.

''Investors are finding it tough to aggressively buy stocks in light of downward revisions of corporate earnings,'' said Yutaka Miura, deputy manager of the equity information department at Shinko Securities.

''But the market will likely trade in a narrow range as investors wait for US jobs data.'' As of 0113 GMT, the benchmark Nikkei was down 51.25 points at 17,041.24.

The broader TOPIX index inched lower by 0.08 per cent or 1.33 points to 1,654.27.

Casio Computer tumbled 19.1 per cent to 1,272 yen after the company cut its operating profit forecast for the current business year by 30 per cent due to sluggish mobile phone sales, missing market expectations.

Among chip-related shares, Advantest Corp declined 2.7 per cent to 3,570 yen and Tokyo Electron Ltd retreated 2.2 per cent to 7,740 yen, reflecting bearish performance by US peers, Miura said.

Shares of KDDI climbed 3 per cent to 870,000 yen after Goldman Sachs lifted a rating on Japan's No. 2 mobile phone operator to ''buy'' from ''neutral,'' saying no ''domino'' price cuts are expected.

Reuters>