Nikkei jumps 2.3 percent

The Nikkei stock average jumped 2.3 percent to a one-month closing high after Japan intervened to weaken the yen, boosting shares of Toyota Motor Corp and other exporters. Japan intervened to sell yen for the first time in six years, bringing the currency off 15-year highs against the dollar.
The action lifted the Nikkei out of negative territory and the index surged as much as 3 percent at one stage. "The Japanese economy depends heavily on what it earns from exports overseas, so the intervention came at a good time and had an impact after a string of verbal threats," said Tomomi Yamashita, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management.
"The authorities were able to put their foot down in the markets, and the next question is can they follow through with steps to help the economy." The benchmark Nikkei gained 217.25 points to 9,516.56 after earlier dropping as low as 9,199.08. The broader Topix rose 1.7 percent to 848.64. The dollar traded at around 85.00 yen after hitting a 15-year low of 82.87 yen on trading platform EBS.
That earlier rise in the yen followed a Japan ruling party vote victory on Tuesday by Prime Minister Naoto Kan over rival Ichiro Ozawa, who had been more strident in his calls to intervene to weaken the yen. The intervention in the foreign exchange market sent short-term speculators scurrying to cover short positions in stock futures, market players said.
Exporters were the top performers on the Tokyo bourse, with Sony Corp jumping 4.1 percent to 2,596 yen after being down as much as 2.4 percent in early trade. Automakers rose across the board with Toyota surging 3.8 percent to 3,010 yen and Honda Motor Co advancing 4 percent to 2,944 yen. Nissan Motor Co gained 3.7 percent to 702 yen.
Makers of precision instruments, a key export sector, also soared, with digital camera maker Nikon Corp gaining 4.5 percent to 1,473 yen and Olympus rising 3.7 percent to 2,254 yen. Canon Inc rose 1.9 percent to 3,835 yen.
The Nikkei was looking bullish on the technical charts, having risen above resistance at 9,455, around its 75-day moving average and previously considered a strong resistance point. It also pierced above 9,500, around the bottom of its Ichimoku cloud. Ichimoku charts are popular with Japanese traders. Trade was active on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 2.36 billion shares changing hands, its highest volume since late July. Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by more than 3 to 1.