The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has confirmed its intention to abolish its foreign section and merge it with the domestic section. The 29 stocks currently listed on the TSE foreign section will be designated to the TSE first section – the section for blue chip companies – from Monday.
The TSE’s foreign section was established in 1973, and had 127 issues listed at its peak in 1991, but has declined steadily since the end of the Japanese equity boom in 1989.
“There has also been a concern that the separation of foreign stocks from domestic stocks has discouraged investors from investing in foreign issues and foreign firms from listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange,” says a spokesman for Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi in Tokyo.
The 29 stocks affected are: YTL Corporation Berhad, Malaysia; PepsiCo; Dow Chemical; Bayer AG; BP; IBM; Motorola; Alcatel; VW; Boeing; DaimlerChrysler; P & O; Telefonica; Deutsche Telekom; JPMorgan Chase & Co; National Australia Bank Limited; The Toronto-Dominion Bank; Westpac Banking Corporation; Barclays; Bank of America; Deutsche Bank; UBS; BNP Paribas; Societe Generale; Merrill Lynch; AIG; AFLAC Inc; AEGON; and Henderson Land Development Company Limited H.K.