Japan bids to shore up market confidence

TOKYO: Japan announced yesterday plans to make it easier for companies to buy back their own shares and said it would discourage short-selling as part of an emergency package to shore up crumbling stock market confidence. 

The package had largely been leaked to the media a day earlier, evoking a sceptical response from analysts and investors who said it did little to address the market’s main problems – a weak economy, looming war in Iraq, and the shaky health of financial firms.