Nomura securities may sell stake TOKYO: Nomura Securities Co. J apan’s largest brokerage, said Monday it is considering selling its stake in the thriving Kokusai Securities Co, one of Nomura's group companies.

The company has yet to decide details such as when and how much to sell in Kokusai, a Nomura spokeswoman said. Nomura Securities and its group companies now own 34 per cent of Kokusai.

Local media, including the nationwide Asahi newspaper, said over the weekend that No mura is. talking with several major financial institutions about abandoning its stake in Kokusai.

The move Is seen as part of Nomura's restructuring steps to help improve the parent company's financial position, which has suffered from massive trading losses overseas.

Truck, bus sales fall sharply in Japan TOKYO: Japan's domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses fell for the 22nd Straight month in January, dropping 6.2 per cent from a year earlier to 241,511, producers said Mon-day.

The hardest hit sectors were trucks and buses. Truck sales tumbled 18.7 per cent to 61.993. while buses dropped 20.2 per cent to 638. the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

Sales of passenger cars dropped 0.9 per cent to 178.880.

Of the country's top auto manufacturers. Mitsubishi Motors Corp suffered the most, with sales dropping 21.6 per cent to 19,508 vehicles. Of the leading producers, only Toyota's sales increased, by 0.2 per cent to 94,985.

Aussie joblessness may decline

SYDNEY: Treasurer Peter Costello predicts Australia's unemployment rate could be slashed to near four per cent, a newspaper reported Monday, In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Costello said reaching that level from the current figure of about 7.5 per cent would require reform of the welfare system and the labour market.

He said Australia could reach that level if it made a number of changes, such as making sure the welfare system did not discourage work and ensuring it and the tax system interact to remove disincentives to employment.

The paper also reported Costello saying it was too early for Australia to declare victory in surviving the 16-inonth-old Asian crisis.

Yield on T-bills dips in Philippines

MANILA: A bold effort by the Philippine Central Bank to get crisis-hit banks to start lending again, thereby helping to revive a sagging economy, got off to a good start Monday with a sharp drop in treasury bill yields at the government's weekly securities auction.

The yield on 91-day treasury bills, used by banks to price their lending rates, slid from 13.115 per cent to 12.856 per cent, their lowest level since the region's financial crisis began in July 1997.

In a bid to persuade banks to relax tight lending policies, the central, bank cut .its key overnight borrowing and lending rates on Monday by 0.375 percentage point to 12.50 per cent and 14.50 per cent, respectively.

— Source: AP