By Makiko Suzuki
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese energy-related stocks such as Inpex Holdings Inc. may drop on speculation oil prices will fall further as tensions eased in the Middle East with the announcement 15 Britons seized by Iran will be released.
Stocks may also decline should investors judge their recent advance excessive. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 3 percent in the last two days, the biggest gain since the two days ended Aug. 9, 2006.
``Concern over geopolitical risk eased and that pushed crude prices lower,'' said Juichi Wako, a strategist at Nomura Securities Co. in Tokyo. ``Indexes may have a weak day after the Nikkei jumped 300 yen yesterday.''
Limiting losses, computer-related stocks including Toshiba Corp. may gain after Citigroup Investment Research said Microsoft Corp.'s earnings increased last quarter, helped by rising demand for the company's Windows Vista operating system.
Nikkei 225 futures expiring in June last traded at 17,575 in Chicago, little changed from the close of 17,580 in Osaka and up from 17,540 in Singapore yesterday. The Bank of New York Japan ADR Index, which tracks the nation's American depositary receipts, rose 1 percent.
The Nikkei advanced 1.7 percent to 17,544.09 yesterday and the broader Topix index rose 1.5 percent to 1730.52.
Crude oil for May delivery fell 0.4 percent to settle at $64.38 a barrel in New York yesterday. It recently traded down 0.2 percent at $64.26, set to fall for a third day.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday 15 British sailors and Marines in captivity in Iran will be released, ending 13 days of increased tension between the U.K. and the Islamic state.
Futures touched $68.09 a barrel on March 27, the highest since Sept. 6., after Iran seized the British servicemen in waters separating Iran and Iraq.
Vista Boosting Profit?
Inpex is Japan's biggest oil explorer and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. in the nation's second largest.
The Nikkei and the Topix yesterday had the biggest advance since March 8 after the yen weakened and an unexpected increase in U.S. home sales pushed exporter shares higher.
Shares of Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, climbed 2.3 percent, the most in two weeks, yesterday after Citigroup said momentum is starting to build following the ``successful launch'' of the company's Vista operating system.
Brent Thill, a San Francisco-based analyst at Citigroup, boosted his third-quarter earnings estimate by 2 cents to 47 cents a share compared with the average analyst estimate of 45 cents in a Bloomberg survey. The company announces results on April 26.
Advantest's Operating Profit
Toshiba, Japan's second-largest chipmaker, also makes personal computers. Tokyo Electron Ltd. is the world's second- biggest supplier of chipmaking equipment and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is the biggest consumer electronics maker in the world.
Matsushita may also rise after the Nikkei English News said the company will open a research center in Vietnam this month to develop software that controls mobile phones and flat-screen televisions.
Advantest Corp., the world's biggest maker of memory-chip testing equipment, may decline after the Nikkei newspaper reported it may post a 7 percent decrease in operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, to 60 billion yen ($505 million), missing the company's 61 billion yen forecast.
To contact the reporter for this story: Makiko Suzuki in Tokyo at msuzuki13@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: April 4, 2007 19:36 EDT
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