Stocks opened on a buoyant note in the Japanese market on Friday with investors indulging in some hectic buying across the board amid easing worries about the crisis in the Eurozone following Greece achieving the bondholder support for the crucial debt swap.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped to a 7-month high of 9,913.5 in early trades, and is currently trading at 9,884, up 115 points or 1.2 percent from its previous close.
Automobile, steel, non-ferrous metals, electric power and manufacturing stocks opened on an upbeat note and are still mostly trading in positive territory with notable gains. Shares from financial, pulp & paper, glass and precision instruments sections are also mostly trading higher.
In the automobile space, Mazda Motor is up nearly 4 percent, Hino Motors is gaining 2.7 percent, Suzuki Motor is trading 2.6 percent up, Honda Motor is adding 2.3 percent and Toyota Motor is up with a gain of 2 percent. Mitsubishi Motor, Nissan Motor and Isuzu Motors are trading higher by 1.2 to 1.8 percent.
Among bank stocks, Shinsei Bank, Aozora Bank, Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and SMFG are up 1.2 to 2 percent, while Chiba Bank, Bank of Yokohama and Shizuoka Bank are up marginally.
Hitachi Construction Machinery is gaining almost 4 percent. Oki Electric, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, Sumitomo Metal Industries, JFE Holdings, Pacific Metals, Panasonic Corp and Fujikura are up 3 to 3.3 percent.
Taiyo Yuden, Trend Micro, Mitsubishi Materials, Nippon Steel, T&D Holdings, Fuji Heavy Industries, Nippon Light Metal, Kobe Steel, Toho Zinc, Advantest, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Sumitomo Chemical, Toyo Seikan and TDK Corp are also trading sharply higher.
Among the losers in the Nikkei index, Daikin Industries is down 4.5 percent. Takara Holdings, Tokyo Dome, Taiheiyo Cement, Sumco Corp and Nichirei Corp shares are down 1 to 1.5 percent.
According to data released by Bank of Japan, the M2 money stock in Japan was up 2.9 percent on year in February, standing at 804.9 trillion yen. That was shy of forecasts for an increase of 3.0 percent following the upwardly revised gain of 3.1 percent in January.
M3 money stock added an annual 2.5 percent to 1,109.6 trillion yen in February. That was just below expectations for an increase of 2.6 percent, which would have been unchanged from the previous month. L money stock added 0.3 percent on year to 1,454.2 trillion yen in February, following the revised 0.3 percent increase in January.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid-81 yen range in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 81.62 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea are trading notably higher. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are up with modest gains, while Singapore is trading slightly weak. Markets across the region ended mostly higher on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks surged higher on Thursday with optimism about the developments in Greece overshadowing some disappointing U.S. jobs data. The major averages gave back some ground going into the close but remained firmly in positive territory.
The Dow rose 70.6 points or 0.6 percent to 2,970.4, the Nasdaq jumped 34.7 points or 1.2 percent to 2,970.4 and the S&P 500 climbed 13.3 points or 1 percent to 1,365.9.
Major European markets too moved higher on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index gained 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index both jumped by 2.5 percent.
U.S. crude oil futures closed higher for a second straight day Thursday, after reports indicated that Greece was close to an agreement with private creditors in its debt swap deal. Crude for April delivery gained $0.42 or 0.4 percent to close at $106.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
by RTT Staff Writer
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