Japan stocks flat; Toyota falls on mounting woes

TOKYO

Japanese stocks finished flat Wednesday, as declines by shipping lines and Toyota Motor Corp. offset encouraging economic data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index slipped 3.73 points, or .04 percent, to 10,563.92 in thin trading. With few trading cues, the overall market struggled to find direction.

The broader Topix index fell 0.2 percent to 922.44.

Toyota shed 1.4 percent to 3,445 yen after the besieged automaker faced more concerns about its quality problems.

The company said Tuesday it would expand a recall announced last year to fix Tundra pickup trucks with frames that could rust. It also rushed to deal with fallout from an incident involving a Prius that sped out of control on a California freeway.

Sea transport firms also declined in tandem with a 1.5 percent drop of the Baltic Dry Index, a key measure of rates on 40 global shipping routes and an indicator of demand for raw materials.

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. fell 2.3 percent to 347 yen, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. lost 1.3 percent to 609 yen.

Machinery makers were mostly higher after industry data Tuesday showed that machine tool orders more than tripled in February from a year earlier.

Further bolstering sentiment were better-than-expected machinery orders in January. Core machinery orders declined 3.7 percent from December, which beat estimates and confirmed that an overall recovery remained on track.

"We maintain our view that capex has already found firm ground and is now starting to pick up," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

Okuma Corp. jumped 5.3 percent to 600 yen, while Komatsu Ltd. added 1.2 percent to 1,915 yen.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 90.02 yen from 89.94 yen late Tuesday. The euro was trading at $1.3568 from $1.3598.