ENM: Nikkei climbs above 16-month low, China PMI a boost
TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei rose 1.2 percent after hitting a 16-month low on Wednesday, drawing support from a halt in the rapid advance in the yen on a manufacturing rebound in China and stronger-than-expected growth in Australia.
Market players said other help came from a slight spike in dollar/yen after news that Japanese political powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, challenging Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a party leadership vote, said in a policy statement he would implement steps including currency intervention if the yen rose rapidly.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 102.96 points to 8,927.02, after earlier falling as low as 8,796.45, its lowest since April 2009, helped higher by what some market players said was buying by domestic institutional investors at lows. The broader Topix added 0.8 percent to 811.40.
