Hitachi, NEC Sell Their Renesas Stakes as Japan Stocks Rally (1)

Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp. are selling their stakes in Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp, the latest example of the country’s companies taking advantage of a booming stock market to unwind shareholdings they’ve held for years.

Renesas sharesslumped as much as 7.3%, the biggest intraday fall in six months. The stock was the biggest decliner on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average on Friday.

“For Hitachi and NEC, this is a healthy thing to do,” said Hiroaki Tomori, chief fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management. “Big Japanese companies are making progress in reducing cross-share holding.”

The ...