Nikkei average dips

Japan's Nikkei share average dipped on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve gave no hints of new stimulus measures, but managed to close above key support at its 25-day moving average, raising cautious optimism over the market's outlook. Shares of online gaming firm Nexon Co slipped on its trading debut following a $1.2 billion IPO, Japan's biggest this year, hurting other Internet and game company shares, while scandal-hit Olympus Corp slipped in volatile trade as it restated its earnings.
"Most market players don't expect the Nikkei to move sharply in any direction ahead of the year-end," said Naoki Kamiyama, chief strategist at Deutsche Securities. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 0.4 percent at 8,519.13, just above its 25-day moving average of 8,503, though it fell below that average earlier in the day.
The broader Topix index lost 0.5 percent to 736.98. The Nikkei's loss was mostly in line with its regional peers, which followed US shares down after the Fed's policy meeting on Tuesday. Market players see 8,500 on the Nikkei as an important level for sentiment and said hedge funds and pension funds are stepping in to buy at that level as Japanese stocks are viewed as undervalued.
Stocks on Japan's main board have an average price-to-book ratio near 0.9, according to ThomsonReuters Starmine. Some in the market suspect selling of stocks may subside in the coming weeks as many investors take holidays, likely giving the market some respite. Still, persistent worries about Europe are likely to cap the market in the near future, with the euro's slide adding gloom to exporters.
Nexon made a lacklustre Tokyo trading debut with its shares slipping from its IPO price of 1,300 yen to close at 1,270 yen. Shares of Nexon's potential rivals also fell on expectation of imbalance selling, with Gree shedding 2.7 percent and DeNa losing 4.3 percent.
Nexon was the heaviest-traded share by turnover on the main board while Gree was third. Olympus Corp fell 4.1 percent as it restated some of its accounts, a prerequisite to stay listed. The restated accounts for the five years to 2009/10 showed that at no stage in that period did the true financial position of the firm sink into technical insolvency, where liabilities exceeded assets, avoiding investors' worst fears.
Olympus shares, which fell on profit-taking ahead of restatement, pared some of its earlier losses in relief, though investors remained on tenterhooks given uncertainty about the future of the company, including whether the Tokyo Stock Exchange will keep it listed.