Japanese investors are expected to take their cue next week from another raft of domestic earnings results as well as the performance of stocks on Wall Street, analysts said Friday. Some market watchers see room for shares to rebound if investors take an optimistic view of prospects for a worldwide economic recovery. "Now that profit-taking has paused globally, players are expected to test upper resistance levels next week," said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at Cosmo Securities.
"It would be no wonder if they try for 10,300 points for the Nikkei." The benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 248.25 points, or 2.41 percent, to 10,034.74 over the week to October 30. The broader Topix index of all first section shares declined 7.36 points, or 0.82 percent, to 894.67. The Nikkei index hit a three-week low on Thursday but bounced back on Friday after Wall Street staged a powerful rally on news that the recession-hit US economy had returned to growth. Analysts said, however, that any gains next week may be limited.