The Nikkei climbed 0.26 percent on Wednesday to end at its highest since February as Yokogawa Electric Corp jumped on a report it had won a big order while Olympus Corp and others with exposure to European markets rose with the yen near an all-time low against the euro.
Bridgestone Corp gained 2.2 percent to 2,605 yen as Goldman Sachs added the stock to its Conviction Buy List while satellite broadcaster Sky Perfect JSAT Corp rose 5.6 percent to 55,100 yen on its plan to mutually link its Web site to the local language YouTube video-sharing site. In the auto sector, Nissan Motor Co's Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said it and Renault SA are studying the feasibility of a $3,000 car to compete in India against Tata Motors Ltd's planned low-cost car.
The market was propped up by the yen, which hovered near an all-time low against the euro and a 4-1/2-year low versus the dollar on Wednesday. "The yen is gradually falling against other currencies and investors do not feel a risk that the trend will reverse," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co Ltd "Rises in US interest rates are also now regarded as a good sign that the US economy is expanding."
The Nikkei share average added 48.07 points to 18,211.68, just short of this year's closing high of 18,215.35 marked on February 26. The broader TOPIX index gained 0.18 percent to 1,783.72. Hideers outnumbered decliners 820 to 743.
Olympus, a digital camera maker that generates a quarter of overall sales in Europe, rose 1.9 percent to 4,830 yen on expectations that a cheap yen against the euro would help inflate their earnings when overseas revenues are brought back home.
Olympus has also assumed a euro/yen rate of 150 yen when drawing up earnings forecasts, but the currency pair now trade at 165.50 yen. Likewise, game maker Nintendo Co Ltd hit an all-time high of 44,900 yen, before ending up 1.4 percent at 44,500 yen. The company's market value has risen recently, putting it within distance of that of Sony Corp.
Shares of Yokogawa Electric surged 3 percent to 1,702 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported an order it won from oil major Chevron was worth more than 100 billion yen. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd advanced 2.8 percent to 803 yen after the Nikkei reported the company signed an agreement with Boeing Co to help promote Mitsubishi Heavy's passenger jet, which it hopes to commercialise by 2012. As quarterly corporate earnings results are due out next month, investors flocked to those with profit prospects.
Shares of shipping companies, which have benefited from the expansion of the global economy, advanced with Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd rising 3.8 percent to 1,447 yen and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines adding 1.5 percent to 1,604 yen.
A notable stock was Murata Manufacturing Co, which added 1.0 percent at 8,530 yen after the electronics parts maker said it would buy C&D Technologies Inc's power electronics unit for $85 million to boost its power supply parts business.