Nikkei slips below 9,000, Softbank surges

Japan's Nikkei share average edged below 9,000 on Friday as caution prevailed on Greece even after leaders in Athens clinched a long-delayed bailout deal, but euro zone finance ministers urged the country to commit to more reforms. Softbank surged 3.7 percent and topped the turnover list after sources said Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group plans to take private its Hong Kong-listed unit Alibaba.com, in which the Japanese telecom firm has an indirect stake.
"The stock (Softbank) is receiving some uplift from the Chinese Internet rerating story," a trader at a foreign bank said. Softbank's trading volume was more than double its average daily 90-day volume. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd rose 1.2 percent, while rivals Nippon Yusen KK climbed 1.3 percent.
The Nikkei dipped 0.6 percent to 8,947.17, with the 200-day moving average near 9,057 acting as resistance. The benchmark has still managed to rise 1.3 percent this week. The broader Topix eased 0.7 percent to 779.07. After the close, the Osaka Securities Exchange said that January options were settled at 9,011.16, a key target level, market participants said, for the market to test next week.
Trading volume was moderate, with 2.36 billion shares changing hands on the main board, down from 2.67 billion shares on Thursday. Toshiba Corp added 1.5 percent after the US nuclear regulatory agency approved plans by Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors through the Japanese firm's US unit Westinghouse. Investors also locked in profit on banks after the sector rallied more than 12 percent this year after last year's 21 percent drop.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group shed between 1.6 and 2.8 percent. They were still hovering close to "overbought" territory, with their 14-day relative strength indexes around 70. Japan's corporate earnings results have been disappointing so far. Out of 138 Nikkei companies that have reported, two-thirds of them failed to meet market expectations, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. That compares with 34 percent for S&P 500 companies.
The weak earnings have not deterred the rally in Japanese equities, however, boosted by a brightening outlook for the United States and an injection of 489 billion euros ($650.57 billion) of three-year loans by the European Central Bank. The Nikkei is up 5.8 percent so far this year after shedding 17.3 percent in 2011.