Latest news with #NISA
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Buffett inspires retail investors to bet on Japan Trading Houses
Bloomberg Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel Japan's retail investors have started to place their bets on trading house stocks, heavily backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s legendary investor Warren Buffett, eyeing strong business models and stellar shareholder demand from Nippon Individual Savings Accounts, or NISA for short, has spread to trading companies alongside traditional favorites like Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan Tobacco Inc. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Corp., one of Japan's biggest trading companies, placed third for the first time since March among retail holdings under the tax-exempt savings program. That's according to data from SBI Securities Co., while Rakuten Securities' ranked it fourth since the support from retail investors, trading house shares have been outperforming the market since US President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs on April 2, despite uncertainties over effects on trading companies shares gained following comments from Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting that he expects his company to hold the shares for 50 years or more. Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsui & Co., Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. rose by more than 3% in reaction.'Many individual investors feel that their value-investing style aligns with Warren Buffett, who is known for such an approach, and they are inclined to follow his lead — 'If Buffett is buying, I'll follow',' said Naomi Kurimoto, an employee in the SBI Securities Investment Market Research Department. Buffett's name on reports boosts page views driven by individual investors, she five major Japanese trading houses released cautious profit forecasts for the year, setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars to hedge against tariff uncertainty. Despite these concerns, the companies have actively been pursuing dividend projected 12-month dividend yields for Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo and Marubeni are all above 3.5%, exceeding the 2.7% estimated calendar year average for 2025 for the Topix index. Although Itochu's projected 12-month dividend yield was 2.66%, it joins the other four in having doubled dividend payouts over the past five of the sectors favored under the NISA program are those with low risk of dividend cuts, even if their earnings growth or share price aren't expected to rapidly rise, said Yusuke Maeyama, a researcher at NLI Research Institute. 'Among high-dividend stocks, trading companies may offer an additional advantage in the form of strong expectations for future dividend increases,' he governance reforms also play a major role in influencing individual investors' stock selection process. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is planning to encourage companies to conduct stock splits, which would make it easier for retail investors to participate. Because trading on the TSE uses 100 share lots, a stock split would reduce the minimum investment amount.
Economic Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Buffett inspires retail investors to bet on Japan Trading Houses
Japan's retail investors have started to place their bets on trading house stocks, heavily backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s legendary investor Warren Buffett, eyeing strong business models and stellar shareholder returns. ADVERTISEMENT Investment demand from Nippon Individual Savings Accounts, or NISA for short, has spread to trading companies alongside traditional favorites like Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan Tobacco Inc. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. Mitsubishi Corp., one of Japan's biggest trading companies, placed third for the first time since March among retail holdings under the tax-exempt savings program. That's according to data from SBI Securities Co., while Rakuten Securities' ranked it fourth since April. Reflecting the support from retail investors, trading house shares have been outperforming the market since US President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs on April 2, despite uncertainties over effects on trading companies shares gained following comments from Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting that he expects his company to hold the shares for 50 years or more. Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsui & Co., Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. rose by more than 3% in reaction. ADVERTISEMENT 'Many individual investors feel that their value-investing style aligns with Warren Buffett, who is known for such an approach, and they are inclined to follow his lead — 'If Buffett is buying, I'll follow',' said Naomi Kurimoto, an employee in the SBI Securities Investment Market Research Department. Buffett's name on reports boosts page views driven by individual investors, she five major Japanese trading houses released cautious profit forecasts for the year, setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars to hedge against tariff uncertainty. Despite these concerns, the companies have actively been pursuing dividend increases. ADVERTISEMENT The projected 12-month dividend yields for Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo and Marubeni are all above 3.5%, exceeding the 2.7% estimated calendar year average for 2025 for the Topix index. Although Itochu's projected 12-month dividend yield was 2.66%, it joins the other four in having doubled dividend payouts over the past five of the sectors favored under the NISA program are those with low risk of dividend cuts, even if their earnings growth or share price aren't expected to rapidly rise, said Yusuke Maeyama, a researcher at NLI Research Institute. 'Among high-dividend stocks, trading companies may offer an additional advantage in the form of strong expectations for future dividend increases,' he added. ADVERTISEMENT Corporate governance reforms also play a major role in influencing individual investors' stock selection process. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is planning to encourage companies to conduct stock splits, which would make it easier for retail investors to participate. Because trading on the TSE uses 100 share lots, a stock split would reduce the minimum investment amount. (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Malaysian Reserve
15 hours ago
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
Buffett inspires retail investors to bet on Japan trading houses
JAPAN'S retail investors have started to place their bets on trading house stocks, heavily backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s legendary investor Warren Buffett, eyeing strong business models and stellar shareholder returns. Investment demand from Nippon Individual Savings Accounts, or NISA for short, has spread to trading companies alongside traditional favorites like Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan Tobacco Inc. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. Mitsubishi Corp., one of Japan's biggest trading companies, placed third for the first time since March among retail holdings under the tax-exempt savings program. That's according to data from SBI Securities Co., while Rakuten Securities' ranked it fourth since April. Reflecting the support from retail investors, trading house shares have been outperforming the market since US President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs on April 2, despite uncertainties over effects on trade. Japanese trading companies shares gained following comments from Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting that he expects his company to hold the shares for 50 years or more. Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsui & Co., Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. rose by more than 3% in reaction. 'Many individual investors feel that their value-investing style aligns with Warren Buffett, who is known for such an approach, and they are inclined to follow his lead — 'If Buffett is buying, I'll follow',' said Naomi Kurimoto, an employee in the SBI Securities Investment Market Research Department. Buffett's name on reports boosts page views driven by individual investors, she added. The five major Japanese trading houses released cautious profit forecasts for the year, setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars to hedge against tariff uncertainty. Despite these concerns, the companies have actively been pursuing dividend increases. The projected 12-month dividend yields for Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo and Marubeni are all above 3.5%, exceeding the 2.7% estimated calendar year average for 2025 for the Topix index. Although Itochu's projected 12-month dividend yield was 2.66%, it joins the other four in having doubled dividend payouts over the past five years. Characteristics of the sectors favored under the NISA program are those with low risk of dividend cuts, even if their earnings growth or share price aren't expected to rapidly rise, said Yusuke Maeyama, a researcher at NLI Research Institute. 'Among high-dividend stocks, trading companies may offer an additional advantage in the form of strong expectations for future dividend increases,' he added. Corporate governance reforms also play a major role in influencing individual investors' stock selection process. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is planning to encourage companies to conduct stock splits, which would make it easier for retail investors to participate. Because trading on the TSE uses 100 share lots, a stock split would reduce the minimum investment amount. While Buffett's influence has helped trading house shares, the companies themselves have been making efforts to expand their shareholder base in the past year. Before the launch of the revamped NISA system at the end of 2023, Mitsubishi Corp conducted a 3-for-1 stock split, lowering the minimum investment amount. Mitsui & Co. conducted a stock split at the end of June last year, halving the minimum investment amount. Trading houses will benefit from increased retail investor participation through programs like NISA as 'they can expect medium- to long-term ownership, which helps build a more stable shareholder base,' said Kazuhiro Sasaki, head of research at Phillip Securities Japan. On the other hand, there could be downsides like increased burden associated with servicing hundreds of investor accounts and handling of much larger shareholder meetings, he added. The total amount of new purchases made under the growth investment quota across all financial institutions' NISA accounts in 2024 reached approximately ¥12.5 trillion ($87.4 billion), according to data compiled by Japan Securities Dealers Association. At the end of 2024, the total number of NISA accounts stood at 25.6 million. Among securities firms, Rakuten Securities held the largest share with 6 million accounts, followed by SBI Securities with 5.36 million. Any deployment of funds by domestic investors would be positive for Japanese equities and even a 1 percentage point shift from cash into domestic stocks 'would unleash $220 billion of flows into equities,' said HSBC strategists including Herald van der Linde in a note. –BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg
18 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Buffett Inspires Retail Investors to Bet on Japan Trading Houses
Japan's retail investors have started to place their bets on trading house stocks, heavily backed by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s legendary investor Warren Buffett, eyeing strong business models and stellar shareholder returns. Investment demand from Nippon Individual Savings Accounts, or NISA for short, has spread to trading companies alongside traditional favorites like Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan Tobacco Inc. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Minimum Investment Threshold in Stocks: Use Lowering Amount to Stimulate Individual Trading
If people can invest in stocks with more affordable amounts of money, the base of individual investors, including those in younger generations, will be expanded. It is hoped that the benefit of increased corporate value will lead to asset building for a wide range of households. The Tokyo Stock Exchange currently urges companies to make an effort to allow investors to buy shares with an investment of less than ¥500,000 when they go public. With their own efforts progressing, such as splitting stocks, the average minimum investment threshold in the Prime Market for large companies has dropped to about ¥260,000. However, this is still about eight times that of the United States and is a stumbling block to broadening the base of individual investors. The TSE has announced a new policy of recommending that listed companies lower the minimum investment threshold to around ¥100,000. This will make it easier for individual investors to purchase stocks. Examples of well-known companies with high minimum investment thresholds remain, such as Fast Retailing Co., which operates the Uniqlo brand, at about ¥4.8 million, and Nintendo Co. at about ¥1.2 million. It is hoped that the trend of lowering the minimum investment threshold will spread throughout the entire market. The government is promoting policies to stimulate the economy by supporting 'from savings to investments' or the shift of households' financial assets, heavily weighted toward savings, into investments. It is important to increase the number of individual investors by lowering the minimum investment threshold. The new Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) investment program, in which gains on small investment are exempted from tax, started in January 2024, and younger generations are increasingly interested in asset building. If small amounts are invested in a variety of stocks, it will be easier to lower the overall risk of the investment. Although the TSE's request is not mandatory, companies need to work on it in light of the changing times. With increasing demands from investors to raise share prices by streamlining management, there is a growing move by companies to sell cross-shareholdings that they had held to maintain ties with business partners, among other reasons. Securing stable shareholders is a major issue. If the number of individual shareholders who sympathize with a company increases, they will be able to serve as such shareholders. However, investors' demands are not uniform. There may be more than a few shareholder proposals that may be confusing to the corporate side. It is necessary to deepen discussions on how to respond to shareholders. As the number of shareholders increases, companies will be burdened with tasks such as the cost of sending physical documents. It is essential to reduce costs by promoting digitalization. Last summer, the Nikkei Stock Average recorded its largest range of drop, and this year, the stock market has been volatile due to the high tariff policy of the United States and other factors. While it is vital to increase the number of individual investors, both investors and the financial industry must not forget the importance of thorough education about investment risks. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 3, 2025)
