Asia Markets Mixed; SoftBank’s Shares Slump

Shares in SoftBank fell more than 10% as investors had their say on the acquisition of ARM Holdings.
By Lisa Botter ,

Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday, with Japanese shares up after a long weekend.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei was up 1.37% at 16,723.31 and the Topix gained 1.08% to 1,331.39.

SoftBank (SFTBY) fell more than 10% in Tokyo today, as investors got their first say on the company's acquisition of the U.K.'s ARM Holdings (ARMH) announced yesterday. Markets were closed in Japan for the Marine Day holiday on Monday.

Softbank will pay £23.4 billion ($32 billion) for the Cambridge, England-based semiconductor and software design company. ARM's semiconductor know-how is used in 95% of smartphones.

The Japanese telecom company said it will take on ¥1 trillion to fund the purchase. Chairman and CEO of Softbank Masayoshi Son said the purchase was "one of the most important" ever done and that the company was investing "to capture the very significant opportunities provided by the 'Internet of Things'." Shares in ARM surged as much as 45% in London yesterday.

Shares in Nintendo (NTDOY) continued their upward climb today. The games company gained 14.3% on Tuesday on the runaway success of augmented reality Pokemon Go. Shares in the company have almost doubled since the game released to a limited number of countries, including the U.S. and Australia, on July 8.

The game was rolled out to a wider audience including the U.K. and Europe last week after major server issues were dealt with.

The game has been deemed a savior for the ailing games company even though some have questioned how the company will make money from the game.

Earnings for the fiscal year ended March 31 fell 60.6% to ¥16.5 million on revenue of $4.53 billion. The company's first-quarter earnings will be released on July 27.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 0.61% at 21,671.20.

On mainland China, the CSI 300 lost 0.64% and was recently at 3,241.15. In Seoul, the Kospi was down 0.21% to close at 2,016.89.

Dow Jones Industrial mini futures were recently down 0.07% and S&P 500 mini futures were down 0.19%.

West Texas intermediate had recently lost 0.20% to $45.15 and Brent Crude was down 0.17% to $46.88 a barrel.

In Sydney, the S&P ASX 200 fell 0.13% to 5,451.25 after the Reserve Bank of Australia said the job market was losing momentum and inflation was weakening.

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