Tokyo stocks extended gains Thursday, getting a boost from broad-based advance on Wall Street.
The 225-issue Nikkei average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange went up 111.97 points, or 0.39%, to close at 29,058.11, the first closing above 29,000 in five market days. The key market gauge rose 131.80 points Wednesday.
The Topix index of all first section issues ended up 16.37 points, or 0.84%, at 1,958.70, following a 16.15-point rise the previous trading day.
A wide range of issues attracted buying right after the opening bell, as investors took heart from rises in all three major U.S. market gauges Wednesday including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which extended its winning streak to six days.
Sentiment was also brightened by U.S. index futures’ uptrend in off-hours trading and leading automaker Toyota’s record-breaking ascent, brokers said.
In the afternoon, the market lost steam amid a dearth of fresh news.
Still, it was underpinned by buying of semiconductor-linked shares in the wake of their drops the previous day, an overnight rebound in the U.S. SOX Philadelphia semiconductor index and the Japanese government’s announcement Wednesday of a plan to support the chip industry under its growth strategy, brokers said.
“Globally active companies were bought” amid heightened investor expectations that enhanced coronavirus vaccination efforts in many countries will lead to an early normalization of economic activities in the world, Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc., said.
“A wait-and-see sentiment grew” ahead of the release of key U.S. economic indicators for May, Maki Sawada, strategist at Nomura Securities Co., noted.
She was referring to the Institute for Supply Management’s services index and the ADP national employment report, both due out Thursday, as well as the Labor Department’s jobs data, on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sawada observed that investor appetite has begun to shift to companies that are likely to attract “post-coronavirus demand” such as railway operators, now that nearly 10% of the Japanese population have reportedly been vaccinated at least once.
On the TSE first section, gainers overwhelmed decliners 1,498 to 594 while 101 issues were unchanged. Volume fell to 1.091 billion shares from Wednesday’s 1.248 billion shares.
Toyota climbed 1.68% to rewrite its record high for the seventh straight session.
Railway operator JR East soared 3.42% while peer JR West rose 1.03%.
Economic recovery hopes also pushed up Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land by 1.35%.
Other major winners included technology investor Softbank Group, a heavily weighted component of the Nikkei average.
On the other hand, clothing retailer Fast Retailing tumbled 4.13% due to poor sales at Uniqlo casual clothing stores in May.
Among other losers were online advertising firm Cyberagent.
In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average increased 140 points to end at 29,070.
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