The Nikkei average ended slightly higher on Thursday though it pulled back after hitting a fresh seven-week peak, partly encouraged by strong performances in other Asian markets. The Nikkei ended the April-June quarter up a tad and set to beat many of its peers, supported by signs that Japanese companies are recovering fast from damage after the devastating earthquake in March.
Power companies made hefty gains, with Kyushu Electric rising 4.2 percent after the governor of Saga prefecture, home to a 36-year-old nuclear plant operated by the utility on the southern island of Kyushu, signalled he was not opposed to restarting reactors there.
If there is such a restart it would be the first among 35 reactors shut for regular maintenance or kept idle since the March earthquake and tsunami triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the north-east coast. The benchmark Nikkei closed Thursday up 0.2 percent at 9,816.09, after rising to 9,849.69, its highest since May 11. The broader Topix rose 0.6 percent to 849.22. On the quarter, the Nikkei was up 0.6 percent, outperforming many other markets, including the US S&P 500, which has fallen 1.4 percent, and ex-Japan Asian-Pacific shares, which have lost 1.0 percent.
That is partly because Japanese shares fell so sharply in March after the country was hit by the massive earthquake and tsunami, followed by the nuclear plant crisis. Confidence was further boosted by data on Wednesday showing Japan's industrial output jumped 5.7 percent in May, rising at a much faster pace than in the previous month, as companies made steady progress in restoring supply chains hit by the earthquake.
Shares in Calsonic Kansei soared 11 percent to 483 yen after the auto parts supplier forecast a 5.5 percent rise in sales on Wednesday to 790 billion yen for the financial year ending March 2012, and a 35 percent increase in net profit to 21 billion yen.
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