*http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/index.html
BOJ to unload equities purchased from commercial banks* *Japan*'s central bank says it will begin unloading equities it has purchased from commercial banks, starting in October at the earliest. The Bank of Japan spent a total of about 2 trillion yen, or 17 billion US dollars, to buy stock holdings from commercial banks between 2002 and 2004. The purchase was meant to help shield banks' earnings from stock market downturns amid a worsening bad-loan situation. Financial systems have stabilized as the economy recovered, and stock prices have risen, giving the BOJ a latent profit of about 16 billion dollars, as of the end of March 2007. The central bank will farm out the transactions to selected trust banks. The sale will take place in stages over a 10-year period to avoid adverse effects on the stock market. The trust banks will be required to sell the shares on the stock market, but they will be allowed to sell them back to their issuers and tender them in buyout bids. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
