The stock market indexes in Asia and the Pacific suffered losses for the third consecutive session today in line with the red wave that flooded the financial markets yesterday in the U.S. and Europe. The reason for this was the decision of the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s to lower its assessment of the prospect of U.S. government debt to negative. This is a sign that the largest economy in the world could soon lose its highest investment grade. Fall in oil and metals brought losses of energy and mining companies, and the losers among stocks in the composition of the regional index MSCI Asia Pacific were those of the Japanese carmaker Toyota. The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.2 percent to 9 441.03 points, after it became clear that in March the attitudes of Japanese households in the economy significantly worsened. S & P / ASX 200 slid 1.4 percent to 4 793.30 points, led by mining companies. The shares of the technology sector also fell after the financial results for the first quarter, the largest maker of analog chips in the world – U.S. Texas Instruments, proved weaker than market expectations. The wide Chinese Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.9 percent to 2 999.04 points and Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 23 520.60 points. Economic data for China showed that FDI in the country increased by 33% in March to 12.5 billion dollars. In the first quarter registered improvement from 29% yoy. Meanwhile, the HSBC Bank published its index of business activity in the factory sector in the country, which remains at a level of 51.8 points for the second consecutive month in April.
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Fiat, Toyota and Ford are the three car companies, which topped the tenth consecutive monthly decline in auto sales in Europe. The expiration of government incentives for the purchase of new vehicles and increase the tax burden in the European countries because of limited demand fiscal crisis on the continent. The number of new registrations in Europe fell by 1.1 percent on a monthly basis to 1.07 million vehicles in January. This monthly figures showed the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. With the sharp drop features Fiat, whose sales shrank by 20 percent within a month. Those of Toyota fell by 11%, while Ford is decreased by 9.4 percent on a monthly basis. High unemployment of 10% and end of programs to stimulate purchases of new cars makes European households to contain themselves in their spending. The analysts point out that Ireland and Romania are the only European countries that still offer incentives for the purchase of vehicles. The sales decreased in three of the five largest markets in Europe, reported 24 percent drop in Spain, 21% in Italy and 12% in Britain. At the same time purchases in Germany increased by 17%, and France increased by 8.2 per cent.
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The biggest carmaker in the world – Toyota, plans to cut its Board of Directors at least to 17 people from the current 27, said in Bloomberg two persons familiar with the company’s plans. This is the largest reorganization in the Japanese company for the past eight years, the goal is to improve the process of decision-making after a series of recalls of defective cars from the market. Toyota currently has 27 directors, including chairman, president, six vice presidents and 15 executive managing directors. The Board of Directors decreases will affect the number of executive vice president, shared the familiar, the changes will probably occur early in April, before the general meeting in June. Eight years ago, Toyota has reduced the number of Directors from 58 to 27, to accelerate decision making. The leading car manufacturer in the world take its largest reorganization in the last eight years. The company made serious financial loses from the turn back cars for fixing some small mistakes in the control systems of more than 10 million cars.

The stock market indexes in Asia and the Pacific region resumed its upward movement today after the largest automobile company in the world – Japanese Toyota, increased its forecast for profit this year because of increasing sales in the U.S. and Asia. Tokyo stock indexes are best presented during today’s session, led by shares of Toyota, which rose 3.4 percent. The company management said it expects net profit of 340 billion yen (3.98 billion dollars) for the fiscal year to March 31st, 2011. Previous estimates had a positive financial result of 310 billion yen. The main Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 rose 1.7 percent to 9 653.92 points while the insurance protection from bankruptcy, the Japanese state fell to its lowest level in three months. The rate of the yen has remained almost unchanged against the dollar today after yesterday jumped to its highest level in 15 years. Stock optimism in Japan was also supported by remarks of the Prime Minister of the country forms of the Khan, who said the government is prepared to grant a new impetus to the economy by using the current budget provisions. He fears that high unemployment and expensive yen would hurt the economic recovery of the country.
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The American auto giant Ford Motor took first place in sales of new cars in the U.S. in February and surpassed its rival General Motors in Detroit for the first time in 12 years, and the world leader in the automotive industry in the face of Toyota. In the past month Ford managed to sell 142 285 cars and trucks in the U.S.. The increase amounted to 43.1 percent annually, which puts Ford at the forefront of the automotive market, whose foundations were built by the same company more than a century, sent Wall Street Journal. Sold by all companies in the U.S. automotive vehicles rose to 10.38 million units annualized in February compared to 9.17 million years ago. Autodata calculations show that Ford’s market share has increased by about 2 percentage points last year to 17%. Sales of General Motors rose by 11.5 percent annually to 141 951 cars and trucks in February, while those of Toyota fell by 8.7 per cent to 100 027.
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