Japanese stocks drop as investors wary of virus impact on earnings

SYDNEY, April 13 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell on Monday
as investors worried about the impact of the coronavirus
outbreak on corporate earnings, though stocks of key oil
exploration firms rose after major producers finally agreed
their biggest-ever output cut. The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 dropped 2.3% to
19,043.40 on subdued activity.
The volume of shares traded on the main board valued at only
1.65 trillion yen ($15.3 billion), its lowest in almost three
months, largely due to the paucity of foreign investors due to
the Easter holidays.
Stocks of companies that have postponed their earnings
announcements due to the pandemic came under pressure.
Nidec Corp 6594.T fell 1.3% after the electric-motor maker
said it will delay its earnings announcement, which was
originally scheduled on April 24, but gave no new date.
Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd 5802.T shed 3.7% after
the company also postponed its earnings report by one week to
May 19.
Bucking the trend, Yaskawa Electric Corp 6506.T added 0.2%
as the company provided a quarterly projection after suspending
its earnings guidance for its current financial year.
The industrial robot producer forecast an operating profit
of four billion yen for the March-May period, even though some
analysts had projected an operating loss for the quarter.
Aeon Co Ltd 8267.T gained 3.0% after the company said its
operating profit may drop as much as 77% in the year ending
February as the virus outbreak hits global consumer spending and
forces some of its stores to close. Analysts said the market liked the fact that the supermarket
giant provided a profit guidance even under the current
difficult circumstances, while many other firms said they could
not give forecasts, citing the ongoing fallout from the COVID-19
respiratory disease.
Recruit Holdings Co Ltd 6098.T dived 8.0% after the Nikkei
business daily reported the recruiting company had requested 450
billion yen of credit lines from Japan's three megabanks to help
it through the virus outbreak. The broader Topix .TOPX fell 1.7% to 1,405.91, with all
but two of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the exchange finishing
in negative territory.
Sea transport .ISHIP.T , securities .ISECU.T and iron and
steel .ISTEL.T were the worst three performing sectors on the
main bourse.
Elsewhere, Japan's top oil and gas exploration company Inpex
Corp 1605.T and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd 1662.T
advanced 1.5% each as oil prices rebounded on Monday after major
producers finally agreed their biggest-ever output cut as the
pandemic severely curtailed global demand. ($1 = 108 yen)