Japan's Stocks Decline, Led by Glassmakers, Shipping Lines

By Masaki Kondo

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's stocks fell, led by glassmakers and shipping lines, after slumping orders for television screens prompted U.S.-based Corning Inc. to cut its forecast and freight rates for commodities plunged.

Asahi Glass Co. dropped 4.2 percent while Sharp Corp., Japan's biggest maker of liquid-crystal display televisions, declined 1.7 percent. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., Japan's second- biggest shipper, slumped 4.5 percent. Bridgestone Corp., the world's biggest tiremaker, jumped 2.5 percent after UBS AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended the stock.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 92.45, or 0.7 percent, to 12,597.14 as of 9:07 a.m. in Tokyo. The broader Topix index fell 7.35, or 0.6 percent, to 1,213.20. All but three of 33 industry groups on the Topix slumped.

``I expect Japan's stock market to be slightly bearish and to largely stay flat today,'' Juichi Wako, a Tokyo-based strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``It's hard to find trading cues with a lack of market-moving news.''

Corning, the biggest maker of glass for flat-panel displays, reduced its third-quarter earnings and sales estimates because television-set makers trimmed orders. Sony Corp. said last month the company's business is struggling in the U.S. and Western Europe though it kept its annual TV sales target of 17 million units.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, fell the most in almost three months on weaker Chinese demand for materials such as iron ore.

Nikkei futures expiring in September retreated 0.6 percent to 12,610 in Osaka and slumped 0.6 percent to 12,605 in Singapore.

To contact the reporter for this story: Masaki Kondo in Tokyo at mkondo3@bloomberg.net.