April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 237.84, or 2.7 percent, to 8,595.01 as of the close in Tokyo. The following were among the most active shares in the Japanese market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Electronics retailers: The Japanese government plans to give incentives to consumers to buy energy-efficient appliances, the Nikkei newspaper said, without saying where it got the information.

Yamada Denki Co. (9831 JT) rose 5.8 percent to 4,760 yen. K’s Holdings Corp. (8282 JT) climbed 10 percent to 1,613 yen. Edion Corp. (2730 JT) jumped 9.5 percent to 312 yen. Kojima Co. (7513 JT) surged 18 percent to 346 yen, the largest gain since September 1998. Bic Camera Inc. (3048 JT) advanced 3.4 percent to 22,330 yen. Joshin Denki Co. (8173 JT) increased 5.1 percent to 534 yen.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (8601 JT) plunged 6 percent to 483 yen. Japan’s second-largest brokerage said it will post a full-year loss as it books a 17.4 billion yen ($173 million) decline in the value of securities holdings.

Denso Corp. (6902 JT) fell 6.4 percent to 2,180 yen. The auto-parts maker was cut to “market perform” from “outperform” by Megumi Sakuma, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co.

Dentsu Inc. (4324 JT) gained 3.9 percent to 1,642 yen. Japan’s largest advertising agency had a 10 percent drop in March sales on a parent basis, beating UBS AG’s estimate of 15 percent decline. The drop was narrower than the 21 percent plunge in February. UBS analyst Shinsuke Iwasa estimates Dentsu’s parent sales may have exceeded the company’s outlook by 20.2 billion yen in the year ended March 31, according to a note to clients.

Furuno Electric Co. (6814 JO) plunged 6.6 percent to 550 yen. The marine-equipment maker said in a preliminary earnings statement that net income in the year ended Feb. 28 fell to 1.23 billion yen from 3.06 billion yen a year earlier, falling short of its 3.3 billion yen forecast by 63 percent.

Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co. (4530 JT) rose 2.8 percent to 3,080 yen. The drugmaker’s operating profit for the year ended Feb. 28 advanced 12 percent compared with a year earlier to 32.5 billion yen on a 4.7 percent gain in sales.

Hoya Corp. (7741 JT) declined 4.2 percent to 1,820 yen. The optical glass maker was cut to “neutral” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (9107 JT) fell 4.1 percent to 349 yen. The shipping line may have missed its full-year pretax profit forecast because of a decline in demand for automobile and bulk carriers and falling shipping rates, Nikkei English News said, without citing anyone. Pretax profit will probably be about 60 billion yen for the year ended March 31, compared with the company’s January forecast of 67 billion yen, the report said.

Kobe Steel Ltd. (5406 JT) declined 4.9 percent to 136 yen. Japan’s fourth-largest steelmaker posted its first annual loss in seven years on lower sales of metals and construction equipment. Its net loss was 32 billion yen for the year ended March 31, compared with 88.9 billion yen in profit a year earlier, the company said in a preliminary report. The company had forecast net income of 13 billion yen for the year.

Nippon Sheet Glass Ltd. (5202 JT) plunged 7 percent to 280 yen. Asia’s second-largest glassmaker will sell about 7 billion yen in Japanese stocks.

Nitto Denko Corp. (6988 JT) slumped 7.8 percent to 2,020 yen. Goldman Sachs analyst Daiki Takayama cut his rating on the chemical-products maker to “sell” from “neutral.”

Sankyo-Tateyama Holdings Inc. (3432 JT) dropped 5.4 percent to 70 yen. The aluminum mesh maker will cut 1,000 jobs, of which 710 will be eliminated through a buyout program. The company said in a press release that it will take a 3.8 billion yen charge for the job cuts. The company widened its net loss forecast for the year ending May 31 to 16 billion yen from 800 million yen, citing weak demand in the housing industry and sluggish capital spending.

Satori Electric Co. (7420 JT) declined 6.2 percent to 394 yen. The electronic equipment trader forecast a full-year net loss of 1.9 billion yen, wider than its earlier projection of a 600 million yen loss, because of a decline in sales of electronic parts, lower prices as well as writedowns on securities. It earned 1.55 billion yen a year ago. Satori Electric also said it will cancel its yearend dividend of 15 yen.

Sharp Corp. (6753 JT) sank 6.1 percent to 813 yen. Japan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal-display televisions posted a wider-than-forecast loss of 130 billion yen because of additional restructuring costs, the company said in a preliminary earnings statement. The annual loss was the company’s first since Sharp’s listing in 1956. Goldman Sachs analyst Yuji Fujimori lowered his rating on the electronics maker to “sell” from “neutral.”

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (4063 JT) fell 5.4 percent to 4,690 yen. The maker of silicon wafers said in a preliminary earnings statement its full-year net income fell 13 percent to 160 billion yen, short of its forecast, citing the effects of a slowing global economy on the electronics business. The company had forecast a 200 billion yen profit.

Sinanen Co. (8132 JT) rose 3.5 percent to 443 yen, the highest since Aug. 6. The fuel distributor’s full-year operating profit almost doubled to 5 billion yen from 2.51 billion yen a year ago as the company introduced a pricing system for sales of liquefied petroleum gas to deal with fluctuating materials prices, according to a preliminary earnings statement. That was 85 percent higher than the company’s forecast of 2.7 billion yen.

TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK (5012 JT) dropped 3.8 percent to 957 yen. The Japanese unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM US) shut a crude distillation unit at its Kawasaki plant near Tokyo because of an interruption to electricity supply. The shutdown of the 185,000 barrel-a-day No. 2 unit on April 6 will cause an “undisclosed supply impact,” spokesman Kosuke Kai said by phone from Tokyo. The company doesn’t know when the unit will be resumed, Kai said.

Toto Ltd. (5332 JT) lost 4.2 percent to 527 yen. Japan’s largest maker of toilets and bathroom fixtures will limit production at three Japanese plants in the current quarter and cancel director bonuses as demand for its products declines, Nikkei English News reported, without saying where it got the information. The company also will ask 700 employees to take time off at 90 percent of their pay, Nikkei said.

Usen Corp. (4842 JX) surged by its daily limit of 32 percent to 125 yen. Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689 JT) will pay 529 million yen to buy a 51 percent stake in video programming Web site Gyao from Usen. Yahoo Japan announced the acquisition in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yahoo Japan slid 1.7 percent to 27,330 yen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Akiko Ikeda in Tokyo at iakiko@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 8, 2009 02:51 EDT