Nikkei hits three-week high

The Nikkei stock average climbed 1.8 percent on Wednesday, hitting a three-week high as short-covering kicked in after Greece's government survived a confidence vote crucial to avoiding default, with recent decliners such as Sony Corp scoring big gains.
The Greek vote had an immediate impact with the euro managing short-term gains, energising the bulls to chase the market higher and overcoming a cautious stance ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting. The benchmark Nikkei share average rose 1.8 percent to 9,629.43, breaking resistance at 9,600 and marking the biggest daily gain in three weeks.
The broader Topix climbed 1.6 percent to 828.99. "Investors were expecting that US stocks would be stronger later in the day, so they accelerated the pace of short-covering in the afternoon instead of waiting for tomorrow," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager for Ichiyoshi Investment Management. Recent decliners such as Sony gained 3.7 percent to 2,012 yen, while Toshiba Corp rose 2.8 percent to 400 yen.
Softbank Corp added 4.4 percent to 2,985 yen while Advantest Corp gained 2.3 percent to 1,453 yen. Softbank was the most-heavily traded gainer by turnover, Thomson Reuters data showed, followed by Sony. Financial shares, which have lagged the broader market since the March 11 earthquake, were among the biggest gainers, tracking US peers which gained on hopes that the passage of Greece's confidence vote could help to remove a source of constant worry about global banks' exposure to eurozone debt problems.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 2.5 percent to 371 yen in active trade. Volume on the Tokyo stock exchange's main board was brisk with 1.91 billion shares changing hands, exceeding last week's daily average of 1.82 billion shares. The Nikkei has lost 6.1 percent since March 11, the day a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan's north-east coast, while Asian stocks outside Japan have eked out a 1.8 percent gain over the same period.