Analysts wary ahead of Japanese telecom results

MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Analysts offered a cautious view on the Japanese telecom sector Friday, eyeing recent data on subscriber growth and analyzing prospects for mobile-handset demand ahead of quarterly results due out later this month. Among the major telecoms, SoftBank Corp. /quotes/comstock/!9984 ( 5,655, -362.62, -6.03%) looked ready to take the spotlight away from NTT DoCoMo Inc. /quotes/comstock/!9437 ( 1,603, +110.68, +7.42%) , one of the world's largest wireless network operators in terms of subscribers, with analysts mainly offering upbeat outlooks on the two smaller companies. "We expect SoftBank to be the only leading telecom carrier to report Q2 profit growth," Ikuo Matsuhashi, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a note to clients issued Friday. SoftBank plans to release its second-quarter results... [read full story]                    

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