Japan pharma stocks - week to July 9

Tokyo saw a steep retreat once more in the week to July 9, due to a lackof buying incentives, poor economic indicators and weakness in New York markets. The Nikkei 225 fell 4.0% and the Topix index lost 3.8%. The Nikkei 225 temporarily slid to a level only slightly above the psychologically-important 12,000 mark, but buying-back on weakness of some high technology names prevented the index from falling below that figure. However, concerns over earnings prospects for technology companies remain in line with downward revisions of earnings forecast by US major semiconductor companies.

The market did not respond to the Group of Seven finance ministers' conference held at the weekend, which saw no decisions on concrete proposals. Also, investors' sentiment was depressed in view of the poor May Index of economic trends which was far below the boom-or-bust mark of 50% for five months in a row. The government stated that the economy might have entered a recession.

The pharmaceutical index slid 1.2% but outperformed the market for two weeks in a row. Taisho rose 3.9%, led by the news that the company is benefiting from expanding demand for over-the-counter health drinks in supermarket chains, a situation partly helped by an unusually hot and rainy season. Taisho is set to strengthen marketing efforts for its mainstay, Lipovitan D, by beginning to sell the product in mid-July through 40,000 units of automatic vending machines managed by Asahi Soft Drinks. Welfide went up 3.4% on the report that its US subsidiary, Alpha Therapeutic, had received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to resume shipment of albumin produced in the North Filling Suite of the affiliate's plant in Los Angeles. Although the plant's operations were resumed in February, the FDA undertook further inspections before allowing the shipment.