Toyota Motor surged Thursday after a forecast-beating earnings report, while Tokyo's key Nikkei index also rose as traders welcomed a Bank of England interest rate cut. The world's biggest automaker on Thursday reported a 552.5 billion yen ($5.4 billion) net profit in April-June, down 15 percent on-year but well ahead of estimates of 440.2 billion yen, Bloomberg News said.
It firm blamed a sharp rally in the yen and falling North American sales for the decline, but the news was greeted Friday with a 3.63 percent jump in its stock price, to 5,898 yen. The surge in the market heavyweight provided support to the benchmark Nikkei 225, which gained 0.28 percent, or 45.86 points, to 16,300.75. The broader Topix index edged up 0.08 percent, or 1.01 points, to 1,284.00.
Tokyo's market gains were in line with a broad regional rally a day after the Bank of England announced its first interest rate cut since 2009 and a fresh stimulus package to counter the fallout from Britain's vote to quit the European Union. "The BoE (Bank of England) has taken the stance that they'll do everything they can in terms of stimulus in the face of uncertainty," Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Nomura Holdings, told Bloomberg News.
"An easing situation is more likely to continue across the globe, and this is positive for Japanese stocks." Attention now turns to the release later in the day of a July US jobs report, which will provide new clues about the world's number one economy and the Federal Reserve's plans for its own monetary policy. A strong reading would relight speculation of an interest rate cut by the end of the year, which could put downward pressure on the yen, in turn helping Japanese exporters.
In Tokyo trade Friday the dollar bought 101.12 yen against 101.22 yen late in New York. In share trading, energy explorer Inpex jumped 1.17 percent to 798.3 yen and crude refiner JX Holdings dipped 0.81 percent to 367.3 yen following a second day of gains in oil prices Thursday. Factory robot maker Fanuc eased 1.24 percent to 16,695 yen and Honda was down 0.22 percent at 2,918 yen.
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