Nikkei rises 1% on economic recovery hopes, upbeat machinery data

TOKYO: Japanese shares bounced back on Wednesday as positive COVID-19 vaccine news globally supported economic recovery hopes, while better-than-expected domestic machinery orders data also lifted investor sentiment.

The benchmark Nikkei share average rose 1.04% to 26,743.52 by the midday break, after declining for three straight sessions. The broader Topix added 0.88% to 1,774.24.

Overnight, the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notched record highs on a string of vaccine news and seeming progress on US stimulus talks.

Hopes for a swift global economic recovery grew as Britain on Tuesday became the first Western nation to begin a wide vaccination campaign, and on encouraging COVID-19 vaccine news from Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc.

Underpinning market sentiment further, data showed Japan's core machinery orders rebounded sharply in October from the previous month's drop.

The 17.1% jump was the largest month-on-month rise since comparable data became available in 2005, and far exceeded a 2.8% expansion forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

The upbeat data sent shares of machinery companies higher. Komatsu climbed 2.58%, SMC Corp added 2.27% and Fanuc Corp rose 2.02%.

Other sectors on the main bourse followed suit. Paper and pulp and textiles rose 2.45% and 1.13%, respectively.

Elsewhere, semiconductors tracked their US peers higher. Advantest Corp rose nearly 1.3%, while SUMCO spiked 4.38%.

Tokyo Dome Corp slipped nearly 4.5% after property developer Mitsui Fudosan said on Tuesday that Oasis Management was willing to tender shares in the company.

The Mothers Index of start-up firm shares bucked the overall trend to decline 1.96%.