Business Report 6

Japanese shares extend longest
losing streak
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo

Japanese share prices slipped for a 12th straight trading day Friday, continuing their longest losing streak in more than five decades on worries about the earnings outlook, dealers said.
Crude oil prices rocketed above 146 dollars a barrel overnight for the first time, heightening concerns for the global economy. Many Japanese companies are feeling the pinch from higher energy costs.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index dropped 27.51 points or 0.21 per cent to end at 13,237.89. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 0.14 points or 0.01 per cent to 1,297.88.
The last time the benchmark fell for 12 straight sessions
was in April 1954, when it declined for 15 straight trading days.
The index has fallen about 1,215 points, or 8.4 per cent, over the past 12 sessions.
'Japanese shares have become an easy target for selling since they have outperformed other global markets since their lows in March,' Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
The benchmark may trade below 13,000 next week, he said.
Activity was muted with many players away ahead of Independence Day holiday in the United States.
Real estate issues were hit by worries about the health of the sector.
Sumitomo Realty & Development lost 3.3 per cent to 2,075 yen and Tokyo Tatemono slid 6.1 per cent to 551 yen.
Chip shares ended in negative territory. Tokyo Electron declined 1.2 per cent to 5,880 yen and Advantest dipped 1.1 per cent to 2,195 yen.
Auto shares fared better as the dollar held up above 106 yen despite a drop in US employment and an interest rate rise by the European Central Bank. A weaker dollar against the yen is bad for exporters' profits.
Mazda Motor advanced 4.6 per cent to 550 yen and Nissan Motor edged up 0.8 per cent to 866 yen.
On the foreign exchange market, the dollar was quoted at 106.72 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, down slightly from 106.81 in New York late Thursday. The euro edged up to 167.67 yen from 167.50.
China, Taiwan launch direct flights
Agence France-Presse . Taoyuan, Taiwan

China and Taiwan launched regular direct flights Friday for the first time in nearly six decades, ushering in what Beijing called a 'new start' in their tense and testy relations.
In the most visible sign yet of a new openness toward the mainland under new Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou, the two sides -- which split in 1949 after a civil war -- welcomed passenger flights directly from each other's territory.
'This is a sacred moment,' said Liu Shaoyong, the chairman of China Southern Airlines, who piloted the first flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taiwan himself.
'Flying over the strait to Taiwan is like coming home,' he told a crowd of well-wishers at the airport welcoming ceremony. 'It feels good.'
The 100 Chinese tourists aboard got the red-carpet treatment on arrival, including jets of water shooting over the plane, to symbolise the cleaning of dusty travellers, as well as a traditional Chinese 'lion dance'.
'We were lucky to be on the plane,' said Wang Yu, a businessman from Zhuhai in southern China. 'Many people were fighting for seats on the inaugural flight.'
The head of China's National Tourism Administration, Shao Qiwei, led a delegation of officials who made the trip to the self-ruled island from Beijing.
Ties between Taiwan and China have always been better than the public hostility from the two sides has acknowledged, and trade between them last year was more than 100 billion US dollars.
But officially, China sees Taiwan as its territory waiting to be reclaimed by force if needed -- and the Strait, heavily armed on both sides, has long been one of the world's most dangerous potential military flashpoints.
Taiwan banned direct trade and transport links following its split from the communist mainland, but Ma's election opened the door to warmer ties after an especially frosty period under his pro-independence predecessor Chen Shui-bian.
The two sides held their first direct talks in a decade last month. Those talks led to the flights agreement -- a deal that, for four days a week at least, will eliminate the time-consuming stopovers in Hong Kong or elsewhere that have been the bane of travellers between the two sides.
'Today is a new start in the history of exchanges between the two sides,' Wang Yi, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in Beijing.
'At present, cross-Strait relations are facing a rare opportunity for development,' Wang said.
Changes have been rapid since Ma took office in May.
Taiwan banks can now exchange Chinese currency, limits on Taiwanese investment on the mainland have been eased, and some Chinese media outlets which had been banned on the island now have clearance to work.
There will be 36 round-trip flights across the Taiwan Strait weekly, operating from Friday to Monday between six Taiwanese airports and five on the mainland.
The service will meet growing demand after Taiwan allowed up to 3,000 visitors a day from China, a move expected to give a much-needed boost to the island's sluggish economy.