TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average posted its highest closing level in more than two weeks on Thursday, led by exporters as the yen weakened against the dollar on prospects of slower-than-expected future rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
The Nikkei rose 2.13% to end at 37,155.33, its highest close since Sept. 3.
The US dollar rose broadly on Thursday, reversing a brief tumble in the immediate aftermath of the Fed’s outsized interest rate cut that had been largely priced in by markets. Against the yen, the greenback gained as much as 1.2% to hit an intraday high of 143.95 earlier in the session.
Fumio Matsumoto, chief strategist at Okasan Securities, attributed the dollar’s gains to expectations of slower US rate cuts going forward and the Fed’s comment that the world’s top economy is not doing as bad as the market had worried.
“The (Japanese) market had expected the yen to strengthen after the Fed’s 50-basis-point rate cut and the domestic equities to fall, but it turned out the yen weakened,” said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory.
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