Asian Market Commentary
Japanese Stock Market Trades Higher
11/5/2009 9:27 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The Japanese stock market opened on a bright note on Friday with the positive close on Wall Street overnight triggering heavy buying in several blue chips. Bargain hunting after the previous session's sharp decline is also contributing to the rally in morning trades.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is trading at 9,835, up 117.6 points, or 1.21%, over its previous close.
Bank stocks are quite subdued on reports that financial regulators in major countries will tighten capital adequacy rules for internationally active lenders. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial Group are exhibiting weakness. Bank of Yokohama and Mizuho Trust & Banking are trading slightly higher than Thursday's closing prices.
Shares of computer and network equipment manufacturer NEC Corp. are up over 8% on strong buying support. The company said Friday it will raise up to 134 billion yen in proceeds from equity financing by issuing new shares making up more than a quarter of its outstanding shares, in the latest instance of a Japanese firm tapping into the stock market to strengthen financial standing.
Toyota Motor Corp. is trading modestly higher after the firm announced Thursday evening it booked its first group net profit in four quarters in the July-September period. The automaker also sharply upgraded its fiscal 2009 outlook to a 200 billion yen net loss from the previously forecast 450 billion yen loss. Toyota booked a 436.9 billion yen net loss in fiscal 2008.
In the currency market, the yen is currently trading at 90.72 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are trading with sharp gains. Shanghai and New Zealand are also trading notably higher. Stock markets in the region had ended mostly lower on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks rallied sharply on Thursday with some upbeat figures on the labor market and quarterly productivity lifting investor sentiment significantly. The major averages all posted standout gains after ending each of the two previous sessions mixed, with the Dow climbing back above the 10,000 level.
The Dow closed stronger by 203.8 points, or 2.1%, at 10,006, the Nasdaq gained 49.8 points, or 2.4%, to end at 2,105.3 and the S&P 500 advanced by 20.1 points, or 1.9%, to 1,066.6.
Major European markets closed moderately higher on Thursday. The French CAC 40 index moved up 1.1%, while the German DAX index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.
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