Securities Market Line

     Location:HONG KONG.

     HONG KONG — Massive share sales for cash-strapped Japanese companies and pending U.S. jobs data to be released Thursday kept investors on the sidelines in the Tokyo on Thursday.

     Following mild growth overnight on Wall Street, which was buoyed by a slowdown in the pace of U.S. production in June and an improvement in China’s purchasing managers index (PMI), the Japan bourse opened slightly higher on Thursday. But those gains evaporated as the Nikkei 225 closed day down 0.6%, at 9876.15, as investors mulled new shares placements from finance leasing firm Orix Corp., carrier All Nippon Airways, and other cash-strapped listed companies eager to raise new capital. Uncertainty about the U.S. job market also weighed on the market.

     Some examples:

     1.Toyota Motor ( TM – news – people ) slid 0.6%, to 3,610 yen ($37.36), after the automaker posted a worse than expected 35% U.S. sales decline for June, ceding market share to Asian rivals. The yen traded near 96.6685 against the dollar as of 5:07pm in Hong Kong.

     2.Hang Seng Index was down 1.1% to 18,178.05, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.7% to 3,060.25.

     3.The H-shares of Bank of China in Hong Kong rose 0.5% to 3.71 Hong Kong dollars (48 cents). Other Chinese gainers included Ping An Insurance, which jumped 3.3% to 54.20 Hong Kong dollars ($6.99).

     4.Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.1% to 3,877.3.Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi index was largely flat at 1,411.48 points.Light sweet crude oil futures for August delivery shed 92 cents to $68.39 a barrel as of 4:57pm in Hong Kong on the New York Mercantile Exchange.