The Japanese stock market advanced on Thursday, reversing Wednesday's losses, led by resource and shipping companies, after China's biggest interest- rate cut in 11 years boosted commodity prices. At 8:39 p.m. ET, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 188.4 points or 2.3% at 8,401.6 and the broader Topix index rose 14.3 points to 831.5.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid 95-yen levels in early Tokyo deals. The dollar was quoted at 95.40-95.43 yen, up 0.47 yen from the upper 94-yen range late Wednesday.
U.S. stocks closed higher for the fourth day Wednesday as investors snapped up tech stocks, trading near their cheapest levels in five years, and renewed hopes of a General Motors bailout helped investors shrug off data depicting a worsening global economic downturn. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 247.1 points or 2.9% to 8,726.6, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 30.3 points or 3.5% to 887.7, and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 67.4 points or 4.6% to 1,532.1.
Crude oil rose after China, the world's second-biggest energy-consuming country, cut interest rates by the most in 11 years to bolster economic growth. The gain came despite bearish U.S. government inventory report, which showed an unexpectedly large rise in crude stocks last week. Oil for January delivery jumped $3.67, or 7.2%, to settle at $54.44 a barrel. In the Asian session Thursday, oil was down 86 cents at $53.58 a barrel by 8:23 p.m. ET.
On the economic front, the minutes of the monetary policy meeting on October 31 released Thursday showed that the Bank of Japan's board of governors agreed that the economic outlook for Japan was becoming increasingly uncertain and was likely to remain sluggish through mid-2009. At that meeting, the BoJ trimmed the overnight call rate by 20 basis points to 0.30%. The rate cut was the first in seven years.
Among commodity-related stocks, Mitsubishi Corp jumped 8.2%, Mitsui & Co surged 8.6%, oil and gas miner Inpex Holdings rocketed 9.4%, Sumitomo Metal Mining rose 11.4%, and Nippon Mining Holdings gained 3.1%. Shipper Nippon Yusen rose 6.3%, Kawasaki Kisen climbed 5.8%, and Mitsui OSK lines soared 9.0%.
Panasonic fell 4.3% following a media report that the company will cut its annual earnings target. Meanwhile, electric equipment makers rose on the back of a rally in U.S. high tech shares. Tokyo Electron advanced 2.5% and Kyocera gained 3.6%.
In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group added 3.8%, Mizuho Financia Group climbed 4.7% and Sumitomo Mitsui inancia Group advanced 3.7%. Among exporters, Toyota Motor rose 0.8%, Sony gained 2.5%, Komatsu jumped 6.6%, and Canon advanced 2.5%.
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