Tokyo stocks extended their winning streak to a seventh session on Friday as a rise in oil prices and earnings optimism boosted energy and resources-related stocks such as trading house Mitsubishi Corp Sumitomo Metal Mining Co also helped the market, rallying nearly 7 percent after the company said on Thursday that a promising gold vein had been found at its Hishikari mine in southern Japan, the country's largest gold mine. The Nikkei share average rose 0.14 percent, or 16.59 points, to 11,873.05, ending at its highest level since July 1.
The broader TOPIX index was up 0.22 percent at 1,192.11, its best close since April 28. The seven-session winning streak in the Nikkei is the longest since January 2001, when it rose 6.3 percent, also over seven days.
The market slipped in the going on profit-taking from the Nikkei's 356-point, or 3.1-percent, gain over the prior six sessions on a string of robust data that raised expectations the Japanese economy would expand this year after a mild recession.
But the market quickly regained steam as investors' bet on further gains in stock prices, analysts said.
"Market sentiment is becoming just so solid that nobody is willing to step back from this bull market," said Tsutomu Yamada, market analyst at Kabu.com securities.
"Some investors took to the sidelines today ahead of the release of US jobs data and the weekend, but I think the Nikkei will reach 12,000 next week." The Nikkei last topped the psychologically important 12,000 line on April 28, 2004.
The United States is due to release jobs data. The figures are expected to show that around 220,000 new jobs were created in February, up from 146,000 the previous month. Oil refining and exploration firm AOC Holdings Inc climbed 3.6 percent to 1,700 yen and INPEX Corp jumped 3.5 percent to 590,000 yen.
US light crude prices remained above $53 a barrel on Friday after hitting a peak of $55.20 the previous day the highest price since the contract touched a record $55.67 on October 25. Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest trading firm with strength in natural resources development overseas, gained 1.6 percent to 1,441 yen.
Sumitomo Metal Mining, the most active issue by value, jumped 6.8 percent to 860 yen, its highest close since May 1997.
Trading edged down, with 1.90 billion shares changing hands on the first section versus 1.94 billion on Thursday. But the volume was much higher than the daily average of 1.86 billion in March last year. Gainers outnumbered decliners 822 to 642.
Comments
Comments are closed.