JP: Nikkei climbs 2%, closes above 15,500 as yen retreats
Stocks advanced sharply on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, helped by the yen’s retreat against major peers.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average jumped 309.17 points, or 2.02 percent, to end at 15,587.8, the first close above 15,500 since Dec. 11. On Tuesday, the key market gauge added 125.72 points.
The TOPIX index of all TSE First Section issues gained 18.18 points, or 1.48 percent, after rising 9.36 points the previous day.
After a weak opening, the Tokyo market climbed on futures-led buying and the yen’s slide, brokers said, before the outcome is announced of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s two-day monetary policy meeting, scheduled to end Wednesday.
Still, the Tokyo market was strong as investors are increasingly confident about the recovery of the U.S. economy, Masashi Oguchi at Mito Securities Co.’s Investment Information Department said, pointing in particular to falling unemployment numbers.
Unlike in May, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spooked the market by suddenly hinting at the possibility of the tapering, players are better prepared to cope because they are now well aware that the tapering must start sooner or later, he said.
Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,148 to 469 on the First Section, while 155 issues were unchanged.
Volume increased to 2.53 billion shares from 1.93 billion shares on Tuesday.
Automakers gathered momentum, with Honda jumping over 3 percent and Toyota and Mazda up well over 1 percent.
Heavily weighted Nikkei components, such as Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo clothing stores, mobile carrier SoftBank and industrial robot maker Fanuc, were upbeat. Fanuc rewrote its listing-to-date high set in May.
Sumitomo Mitsui and Mitsubishi UFJ rose about 3 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.
By contrast, Ricoh plunged 4.72 percent after Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. cut its earnings outlook for the office equipment maker for the current year to March, brokers said.
Chugai Pharmaceutical shed over 3 percent.
In index futures trading on the Osaka Securities Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average rose 300 points to end at 15,590.
