5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo - Japan wages decline 0.3% in August. Business confidence weakens.

Stocks in Japan rose marginally on he hopes that the U.S. will soon pass historic bailout plan even though it is deeply unpopular with voters who perceive the plan benefiting the rich on Wall Street only.

The government data released showed that wages slid in August and business sentiment is on the decline on weak exports.

Market Sentiment

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 gained 0.96% or 108.4 to 11,368, and the broader Topix Index advanced 1.3% or 13.72 to 1,101.13.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 8.6 billion shares worth 873 billion yen were traded and in the second section 415 million shares valued at 2.2 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 136 rose, 84 declined, and 5 were unchanged. T& D Holdings led advancers in the index shares with a rise of 6.23%.

Japan Business Become Pessimistic on Economy

The Bank of Japan reported on its Web site that large enterprises confidence declined to negative 3 in September from positive 5 recorded in June, as pessimists exceeded than optimists for the first time since 2003.

Confidence at medium sized and small enterprises also declined to –8 and –17 correspondingly. In addition, large manufacturers project that the index on confidence will fall –4, while medium sized enterprises anticipate that sentiment will plummet to –12.

Also small enterprises forecast sentiment drops to –25%.

Large manufacturers said they anticipate that the yen will rise to 102.82 per dollar for the fiscal year through March 2009.

Japan Wages Fall 0.3% to 283,473 yen in August

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported on its Web site today that the average total cash earnings per employee declined 0.3% to 283,473 yen in August and contractual cash earnings gained 0.3% to 269,078 yen.

Scheduled cash earnings advanced 0.4% to 250,140 yen, while non-scheduled cash earnings and special cash earnings declined 1.8% to 18,967 yen and 9.8% to 14,366 yen respectively.

On the overall the total hours worked in the month declined 2.2% to 144.4 hours and scheduled hours dipped 2.3% to 134.2 hours. Also non-scheduled hours worked dropped 2.9% to 10.2 hours.

Regular employment and labour turnover soared 1.6% to 45.1 million in the review period. Full-time employees jumped 1.6% to 33.3 million, while part-time employees rose 1.3% to 11.8 million.

Japan Auto Sales Decline 2.9% to 1.54 million

The Japan Automobile Dealers Association reported today that auto sales in the six months ended September dropped 2.9% to 1.54 million units and forecasted that domestic auto sales will fall by 1.2% this year to 5.32 million units.

Gainers & Losers

T&D Holdings led advancers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 6.23% followed by gains in Mitsui Sumitomo of 6.02%, in Nomura Holdings of 5.96%, in Shinko Securities of 5.90%, and Mitsui & Co of 5.79%.