Japanese stocks finished at their highest in two weeks on Wednesday, led higher by technology shares and automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp as the yen weakened and US holiday spending data eased concerns that the major export market was tipping into recession.
Trade was thin with many investors away for Christmas holidays. Other Asian markets including Australia and Hong Kong were shut, and many markets in Europe will also stay closed. One notable stock was Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, which tumbled more than 10 percent after the struggling electronics maker said it had made illegal dividend payments worth 28 billion yen ($245 million) between 2002 and 2004.
Masaru Hamasaki, a senior strategist at Toyota Asset Management, said US Christmas sales data supported exporters as it helped relieve investor concerns about the health of the US economy. "No one had high expectations about the shopping sales this year, but the data didn't turn out to be ridiculously horrible and investors perceived it as good news," he said.
US retailers' holiday shopping season sales up to December 24 rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier, at the lower end of expectations, helped by a late-season spending surge on some items, according to data released on Tuesday. "Still, the upside looks heavy for the Nikkei from now on as it lacks domestic trading factors and the outlook for the subprime problems is still unclear, though they have largely calmed down," Hamasaki said.
The benchmark Nikkei average ended the day up 0.7 percent or 100.95 points at 15,653.54, its highest close since December 12. The broader TOPIX index climbed 0.8 percent or 12.44 points to 1,508.47, the highest finish since December 13. The US stock market rallied on Monday, led by financial companies. It was closed on Tuesday for Christmas.
The dollar stood at 114.20 yen in Asian trade, staying near Monday's peak of 114.49 yen on electronic trading platform EBS, its highest since November 7. Trade was thin on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 1.4 billion shares changing hands, compared with last month's daily average of 2.3 billion.
Turnover value hit this year's lowest at 1.4 trillion yen. Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by a ratio of more than six to one. A softer yen benefits shares of exporters as it boosts profits when earnings from abroad are brought home.
Toyota climbed 1.3 percent to 6,180 yen and Nissan Motor Co Ltd added 1.6 percent to 1,233 yen. Among other exporters Canon Inc rose 1.7 percent to 5,330 yen and TDK Corp gained 1.1 percent to 8,450 yen. Shares of Sanyo plunged 10.7 percent to 167 yen. Another notable stock was Central Japan Railway Co, also known as JR Tokai.
It tumbled 8.9 percent to 1.03 million yen after it announced plans to self-finance a new $45 billion bullet train line between Tokyo and Nagoya. Asahi Breweries Ltd shed 1.8 percent to 1,940 yen after the Nikkei business daily said the firm would likely report a group operating profit of 84.5 billion yen ($740.9 million) for the year to December 31, short of the company's 88 billion yen forecast, because of sluggish sales of beer and beer-like alcohol beverages.
Comments
Comments are closed.