Japan drifts lower on US payrolls data

BST 03:10 With many Asia-Pacific markets shuttered for the holiday, it was left to Japan to drift lower on Friday's disappointing jobs report from the US.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4 per cent in early trading to 19,366 points following the lacklustre payrolls data.

Bucking the trend Sharp rose as much as 6.5 per cent to Y247 in early trading, following media reports that the struggling Japanese group plans to spin off its LCD panel business.

The electronics maker faces its third annual loss in four years; for the year to March it is projecting a net loss of Y30bn, reversing its earlier forecast of a Y30bn profit. Sharp said on Monday it was considering various restructuring options.

Meanwhile, commercial property agent Tosei rose as much as 10.1 per cent to Y902 after reporting a year-on-year 59 per cent jump in net income after the market closed on Friday to Y1.39bn for the quarter.

Tosei struck an optimistic tone, saying: "Corporate earnings and the employment situation improved due to the effects of economic measures by the government and bold monetary easing by the Bank of Japan as well as a fall in crude oil prices."

Commercial real estate transactions are doing well amid expectations of rises in land prices and low interest rates, it added.

Less cheerful was Toshiba as shares fell as much as 8.1 per cent to Y466.3 after Friday's disclosure of an internal probe into possible problems with its accounting in 2013.

The manufacturing group said it would appoint a committee to investigate the "reasonableness of estimates" for some projects. It does not know if there will be any material impact from the probe.

Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi was up 0.2 per cent. Markets are closed for holidays in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Thailand.

Gold was up 0.8 per cent to $1,216.65 an ounce. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 1.6 per cent to $55.80 a barrel.

Looking ahead, futures for the S&P 500 in the the US indicate it will fall 0.6 per cent at the open. The benchmark US index was closed on Friday when the payrolls data came out.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to 2,066 on Thursday, giving it a 0.3 per cent gain over the holiday-shortened week. However, the US equity benchmark was still 2.4 per cent down from a record closing high a month ago.

The data showed the US created just 126,000 new jobs last month, versus forecasts at 245,000.

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