TOKYO, - Buoyed by gains on Wall Street, Japanese stocks powered higher on Monday, with the benchmark Nikkei erasing part of last week's losses on rises in auto makers, banks and high-tech shares. Nissan Motor Co (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 5 percent and other car firms weren't far behind, gaining some strength from a slightly weaker yen. Other exporters also fared well. The rally was inspired by Wall Street after shoppers flocked to stores on "Black Friday", the first day of the U.S. holiday shopping season, with a good performance helping to boost retailers and U.S. shares overall.
But Tokyo market participants, while enjoying the bounce, said too many unknowns remained over the longer term for Monday's trade to signal the start of a major recovery.
"Black Friday was good, yes, but a lot of people were buying bargains, so it's hard to know if we can really trust the overall figures," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
"There's still a lot of uncertainty, especially with a lot of U.S. economic indicators coming up this week, including housing data."
A strong performance in futures and technical factors that had indicated Japanese shares were oversold also helped lay the groundwork for the rise.
Other Tokyo players said short-term rises could be capped around 15,200-15,300 since there are few strong buying factors, with Monday's rise powered largely by short-covering after last week's substantial slide, which saw the Nikkei fall 1.75 percent on the week.
A slightly weaker yen also helped. By midmorning in Tokyo the dollar
The broader TOPIX (.TOPX: Quote, Profile, Research) was up 1.7 percent at 1,461.57. On Nov. 22 it hit a two-year low of 1,417.47. Despite its gains, the Nikkei still underperformed other Asian markets. At 0230 GMT, MSCI's measure of other Asia Pacific stocks (.MIAPJ0000PLUS: Quote, Profile, Research) had risen 2.8 percent, with Tokyo likely gaining on some spillover energy from the region.
CARS, HIGH TECH, BANKS Automakers did well, with Nissan ending the morning up 5.0 percent at 1,165 yen. Honda Motor Co (7267.T: Quote, Profile, Research) gained 3.1 percent to 3,680 yen and Toyota Motor Co (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 2.9 percent to 6,040 yen. High tech shares also climbed, which Mitsubishi UFJ's Yamagishi said was likely due to expectations of good sales over the coming months.
"They appear to have nearly cleared out their inventories, so sales are likely to do well in the near future. Also, it seems they are being bought a bit defensively," he added.
Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) was up 3.6 percent at 5,450 yen, boosted as well by a ratings upgrade by Mizuho Securities to "2" from "3."
In a note published on Thursday, Mizuho said an end to the negative factors afflicting Sony, including large losses on the PlayStation 3 game console, seems to be in sight.
"We believe conditions are in place for the company to deliver stable profits on its main strength in portable electronics equipment," it said. "We believe there is now a clear sense of undervaluation in the share price."
Canon Inc (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 2.4 percent to 5,570 yen.
Banks also climbed, mainly on short-covering after being sold strongly last week.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research) was up 4.7 percent at 972 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research) up 4.4 percent at 849,000 yen. Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T: Quote, Profile, Research) gained 3.6 percent to 542,000 yenTrade slowed on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 895 million shares changing hands, compared with last week's morning average of 965 million.
Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by a ratio of 2.5 to one.
No comments:
Post a Comment