Tokyo stocks ended 1.68 percent higher Thursday, picking up after a four-day losing streak. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 336.61 points to close at 20,382.97, while the Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 1.27 percent, or 20.65 points, to 1,648.88. The benchmark index opened higher after Wall Street enjoyed one of its best days for weeks thanks to a surge in banks and technology stocks, as well as optimism over the Greek debt crisis.
Dealers welcomed news Wednesday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande would meet with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit. The Dow jumped 1.33 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.20 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.25 percent as investors hoped they would seal a long-awaited deal to extend Greece's bailout funding. Later in the day, the three European leaders said they had agreed to work harder for a deal that will unlock billions of euros much needed by Athens to service its debts and avert a default that could see it tumble out of the eurozone.
In afternoon forex trading on Thursday, the dollar fetched 123.31 yen, up from 122.67 yen in New York Wednesday, giving a boost to Japanese exporters. The greenback plunged Wednesday into the 122-yen range from mid-124 yen levels after the head of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda said a further slide in the yen was "unlikely". "Kuroda probably restrained the yen as a too-sudden weakening doesn't help either the US or Japan," Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, told Bloomberg News.
"That said, the overall direction is toward a weaker yen, so we shouldn't expect any further major strengthening in the Japanese currency." In share trading, Toyota rose 1.71 percent to finish at 8,322 yen, Sony jumped 2.91 percent to 3,759.5 yen and market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, climbed 3.88 percent to 52,980 yen.
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