Japan's Commodity Shares Rise on Oil Forecast; Nintendo Drops

By Patrick Rial
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Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's commodity stocks advanced after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted oil will rally this year, while Nintendo Co. slipped after being sued for patent infringement.

Mitsubishi Corp., which generates more than half its profit from raw materials trading, was bid higher by 2.7 percent. Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan's largest retailer, climbed 1.8 percent after nationwide convenience store sales rose 11.7 percent. Nintendo retreated 1.9 percent after it was sued by a Maryland electronics company over devices used in its Wii game system.

``Oil producers and trading companies look like some of the better bets at the moment,'' Juichi Wako, a strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``Investors can't shake the concern that profits are going to be dragged lower due to the external economic picture.''

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average was little changed at 12,846.19 as of 9:11 a.m. in Tokyo. The broader Topix index was little changed at 1,233.45.

Nikkei futures expiring in September fell 0.2 percent to 12,830 in Osaka and dropped 0.5 percent to 12,835 in Singapore.

To contact the reporter for this story: Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net.