Itochu Corp. shares
8001,
rose sharply Tuesday morning after the Japanese trading house boosted its fiscal-year earnings guidance and announced a share buyback plan.
The shares were recently 7.1% higher at 3,815 yen after rising as much as 7.4% earlier.
Itochu said Tuesday that it expected net profit of Y800 billion ($5.53 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2023, up from its previous forecast of Y700 billion and compared with Y820.3 billion net profit the previous fiscal year.
The trading company cited steady growth of core profit for the guidance upgrade.
Itochu also said it would buy back up to Y35.0 billion of its own shares by the end of January 2023 and raised its fiscal-year dividend forecast to Y140 a share from its previous projection of Y130. It paid Y110 a share in dividend the previous fiscal year.
Shares of other trading companies were also higher thanks partly to easing of concerns about the U.S. central bank’s aggressive tightening and the global economic slowdown.
Mitsubishi Corp.
8058,
was recently up 4.8% and Mitsui & Co.
8031,
was 4.6% higher. The Nikkei Stock Average
NIK,
was up 2.6%.
