TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei average gained 4.5 per cent on Monday after earlier rising over 5 per cent, with exporters such as Canon Inc climbing in thin trade as the dollar edged up against the yen and Asian shares climbed.
Additional support came from domestic demand shares such as Astellas Pharma Inc and other drugmakers, with retailer Aeon Co surging more than 7 per cent after two company sources said on Saturday that top trading firm Mitsubishi Corp plans to buy a roughly 5 per cent stake in the retailer for more than $324 million.
"There's a sense that perhaps Japanese shares had fallen too much," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, noting that short-covering had apparently emerged. "The yen has lost a little ground against the dollar and the euro, and there's also some reassurance from that." The dollar was fetching around ¥92.88, while the euro was trading around ¥118.62.
The benchmark Nikkei gained 359.72 points to 8,276.72 after earlier rising more than 5 per cent in the first few minutes of the afternoon session. The broader Topix gained 2.9 per cent to 809.16. There was also some spillover from other Asian markets, which were climbing sharply. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan was up 5.3 per cent. US President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, began outlining his economic recovery plan on Saturday, saying he aims to create at least 2.5 million new jobs by 2011 and launch the largest US infrastructure investment since the 1950s.
Investors continued to watch the fate of the ailing US auto industry.
Negotiators tried to forge an agreement in principle to provide the "Big Three" American automakers -- GM, Ford and Chrysler -- with at least $15 billion in short-term loans.
The US Senate is due back in session on Monday and negotiators hope to have a package ready that can be quickly approved and sent to President George W. Bush as one of the last measures he signs into law before Obama succeeds him as president.
But Yamagishi at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities remained wary.
"There's some nice direction taking shape, but nothing has really been decided yet," he said.
Canon Inc climbed 5.1 per cent to ¥2,690 to become the top contributor to the Nikkei 225 by volume weight.
Sony Corp rose 4 per cent to ¥1,798 and Honda Motor Co gained 5.6 per cent to ¥1,744.
But domestic demand shares, strong since the start of trade, held their own, providing additional support.
Astellas Pharma rose 4.9 per cent to ¥4,040, while lifestyle and personal care product maker Kao Corp gained 3.4 per cent to ¥2,895.
Aeon rose 7 per cent to ¥886 while Mitsubishi rose 6.9 per cent to ¥1,076.
