| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japan market awaits stock support
TOKYO, Japan -- Japan's financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), is expected to announce a six-point plan Thursday to reinvigorate the ailing stock market. The measures could include relaxing rules on share buy-backs by corporations, according to a government source quoted by Reuters news agency. Another measure is expected to be an expansion of the central Bank of Japan's stock purchase program, according to the Nihon Keizai business daily. The Tokyo stock market's Nikkei 225 average fell to 20-year lows earlier in the week, but recovered slightly on Wednesday and is higher again in early trade Thursday. It is trading at 7983.08, a gain of half a percent, by mid-morning. The broader Topix, which touched 19-year lows on Tuesday, is also higher, up 0.45 percent to 785.85. Big banks UFJ, SMFG and MTFG are all higher, with gains or up to 4 percent. According to the government source, the FSA measures will include a request to the securities industry to set voluntary rules on stock lending, a practice usually associated with short selling of stocks.. "We want to prevent risks from expanding, given the unstable conditions in overseas markets and the geopolitical situation," the source told Reuters news agency. Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Wednesday said the FSA would announce stock market measures on Thursday. Package of measuresMinisters and central bankers met on Wednesday to start pulling together a package to support the stock market and help companies facing huge losses on shareholdings. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the FSA's six-point plan will include calls on financial institutions to give consideration to market trends before selling their shareholdings. In addition, the FSA will ask the Bank of Japan to raise the 2 trillion yen ceiling on the amount of shares that it can buy from commercial banks. Japan's stock market has fallen sharply over the past week on worries about the economic fallout of a possible war in Iraq, and the erosion of banks' balance sheets with less than three weeks to go before their March 31 book-closing. Last year, the FSA tightened rules on short-selling of stocks, which put a squeeze on players with short stock positions and led to a Nikkei rally just before the business year end. Also included in this year's measures were strengthening of market surveillance by the stock exchanges and the government's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC). The FSA will also make securities firms ensure better risk management for their own-account trading and ask financial institutions to consider market conditions when selling shares. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
