Hitachi Construction Falls in Tokyo After Analysts Cut Ratings

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., the world’s biggest maker of giant excavators, dropped on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after Nomura Securities Co. and CLSA Asia- Pacific Markets cut their ratings on the stock.

Hitachi Construction Machinery fell 8.4 percent to 2,785 yen as of 9:27 a.m. in Tokyo, the biggest decline in the past four trading sessions. The stock was earlier untraded because of a glut of sell orders.

Analyst Katsushi Saito at Nomura Securities cut his rating on the stock to “neutral” from “buy,” citing higher expansion costs and sales losses because of delays from parts suppliers, he said today in a report to investors.

Analyst Takeaki Ueno at CLSA downgraded his rating to “underperform” from “outperform.”

Hitachi Construction Machinery, based in Tokyo, reported a 13 percent gain in third-quarter profit, a slower pace of growth than the July-September quarter. Komatsu Ltd. also of Japan, the world’s second-largest maker of earth-moving equipment, is scheduled to report quarterly earnings.