Tokyo - Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average continued to rise in early trading Wednesday, again topping the 8,000 mark.

Tokyo  - Panasonic Corp on Tuesday reported the highest net profit in 23 years for the first six months of a business year, thanks to strong sales of digital consumer electronics.

The company, which changed its name from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co earlier this month, saw net profit rise by 22.2 per cent during the first six months of fiscal 2008 to 128.49 billion yen (1.38 billion dollars), compared to the year before.

The Japanese home electronics company logged an operating profit of 228.15 billion yen, up 3.7 per cent year-on-year for the first half of the business year starting in April.

Tokyo  - Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's largest brokerage house, was hit hard by the global financial crisis, reporting losses of 149.4 billion yen (1.57 billion dollars) for the first half of the business year on Tuesday.

During the same period last year, Nomura posted profits of 64.2 billion yen. Japan's business year ends on March 31.

It was the third quarterly loss for the company, which took over the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and European operations of failed US brokerage Lehman Brothers last month.

In the quarter from July to September, Nomura's reported net loss widened to 72.9 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 11.7 billion yen the previous year.

Tokyo  - Honda Motor Co lowered its net profit projection for the full year through March 31 due to a stronger yen and decline in sales, the company said Tuesday.

Japan's second-largest car maker by sales revised downward its net profit projection to 485 billion yen (5.1 billion dollars) from an initial figure of 490 billion yen because of the rising yen value and slow sales in North America.

Honda reduced its forecast for operating profit to 550 billion yen from an earlier projection of 630 billion yen.

The company expected sales to drop to 11.6 trillion yen from 12.13 trillion yen it estimated in July, it said.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks rebounded Tuesday from a 26-year low as the yen fell against the dollar and euro, investors hunted for bargains and the government instituted new restrictions on short selling.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average soared 459.02 points, or 6.41 per cent, to close at 7,621.92, nearly erasing all of its 486.18-point loss from Monday.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also was up 37.57 points, or 5.03 per cent, at 784.03.

The gains ended a four-day losing streak, which wiped out nearly a quarter of the Nikkei's value.

The day began on a sour note, as the Nikkei briefly dropped below 7,000, but investors returned to the market to buy up stocks trading at historic lows.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks started to climb up Tuesday after the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average earlier fell to its lowest level in 26 years to 7,000.

At 1:33 pm (0433 GMT) the Nikkei gained 216.43 points, or 3.02 per cent, to 7,379.33. Earlier the Nikkei had fallen to 7,000, its lowest level in 26 years.

Japan Tuesday imposed a ban on naked short selling to try to stabilise Asia's largest bourse, following similar crackdowns in the United States, Australia and some European markets.

Short sales involve selling borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back later at a cheaper price to make a profit. With naked short-selling, traders sell stocks before even borrowing them.