Tokyo’s equities markets were higher on Thursday, as the Nikkei 225 added 0.6 percent to 18,116.57 and the Topix index gained 0.5 percent to 1,768.
Tokyo Electric Power (TYO: 9501) continued to decline after reports of earthquake damage to one of its nuclear power plants.
It dropped another 5.6 percent to ¥3,400 after Nomura Securities (TYO: 8604; NYSE: NMR; SGX; N33) reduced its recommendation from “neutral” to “reduce”.
The real estate sector also saw declines, with Mitsubishi Estate (TYO: 8802) down 0.9 percent to ¥3,180 and NTT Urban Development (TYO: 8933) falling 1.4 percent to ¥217,000.
The consumer finance sector saw advances after it was reported that Promise (TYO: 8574) and Sanyo Shinpan Finance (TYO: 8573) are about to agree to a merger.
Trade in both companies was halted after the reports, but Promise had added 5.9 percent to ¥3,790 and Sanyo Shinpan was 12.2 percent higher to ¥3,600 before that occurred.
Elsewhere in the sector, Takefuji (TYO: 8564) gained 7.7 percent to ¥4,404 and Aiful (TYO: 8515) was up 11.2 percent to ¥3,480.
The steel sector was up in anticipation of the release of JFE Holdings’ (TYO:5411) quarterly results, due at the end of the month.
JFE added 4.4 percent to ¥8,270, while Nippon Steel (TYL: 5401) was 4.7 percent higher to ¥919.