At the closing time 23 days ago, the number of rising stocks in the Nikkei average constituent stocks was 109, the number of declining stocks was 115, and the unchanged stocks were 1.

The Nikkei average has declined for 3 consecutive days. It closed the morning session at 38,300.81 yen (volume estimated at 0.8 billion 90 million shares), down 111.15 yen (-0.29%) from the previous day.

The U.S. stock market on the 22nd was mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 6.71 points at 42,924.89, while the Nasdaq closed at 18,573.13, up 33.12 points. The market remained mixed as selling continued due to the retreat of expectations for aggressive interest rate cuts, leading to a slight decline after the opening. Positive economic indicators and an upward revision of the country's economic growth outlook by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led to expectations of a soft landing, supporting buying and turning the market upwards. Towards the end, the Dow was pushed lower by selling due to aversion to rising interest rates, ending slightly lower, while the Nasdaq maintained a solid performance on expectations for high technology, keeping it in positive territory and closing mixed.

As U.S. stocks showed mixed movements, the Tokyo market started trading cautiously. The Nikkei average started at the previous day's closing level but lacked direction, hovering around 38,400 yen. Market attention is focused on the Tokyo Metro <9023>, which was listed on the main board today, and the trading value on the main board remained at 1.8 trillion yen. Tokyo Metro saw a predominance of buying interest, with trading value exceeding 200 billion yen in the morning session and market capitalization reaching the 1 trillion yen mark.

Among Nikkei average constituent stocks, some yen benefit related stocks such as Nichirei <2871>, Nitori Holdings <9843>, and Nissui <1332> declined, while TOTO <5332>, Disco <6146> remained weak. In addition, shipping stocks like Kawasaki Kisen <9107> and Nippon Yusen <9101>, which were bought yesterday, saw a decline. Furthermore, financial stocks like Daiwa Securities <8601>, Mizuho <8411>, Shizuoka Bank <5831>, and Sumitomo Mitsui <8316> were also sold off.

On the other hand, speculation buying led by Effissimo resulted in a sharp rise for Konica Minolta <4902>. Positive factors such as the progress in yen depreciation and good earnings from U.S. auto giant GM were considered, causing other auto stocks like Subaru <7270>, Toyota Motor <7203>, Honda <7267>, Mitsubishi Motors <7211>, Nissan <7201>, as well as auto parts companies like Denso <6902>, JTEKT <6473> to rise. Additionally, real estate stocks like Tokyo Tatemono <8804>, Mitsubishi Estate <8802>, and Tokyu Fudosan Holdings <3289> were also bought.

By sector, services, shipping, banks, securities & commodity futures trading, and retail declined, while transportation equipment, real estate, rubber products, food products, and mining rose.

The top contributor to the decline was Fast Retailing <9983>, which pushed down the Nikkei average by about 57 yen with one stock. The second place was Recruit Holdings <6098>, followed by Tokyo Electron <8035>, Advantest <6857>, SoftBank Group <9984>, Nitori Holdings <9843>, Daikin <6367>, and others.

On the other hand, Toyota Motor <7203> became the top contributor to the price increase, pushing the Nikkei average up by about 16 yen with one stock. Honda <7267> took second place, followed by Denso <6902>, Kyocera Corporation Sponsored ADR <6971>, Otsuka Holdings Co Ltd <4578>, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd <2502>, TDK Corp <6762>, and so on.

*As of 11:30.

Nikkei Stock Average 38300.81 (-111.15)

Number of stocks that rose 109 (contribution +113.43)

Number of declining stocks 115 (contribution -224.58)

Number of unchanged issues　1

○ Top advancing stocks

Code, Stock Name, Latest Price, Day Change, Contribution

Top decreasing stocks

Code, Stock Name, Latest Price, Day Change, Contribution