Tuesday May 13, 08:32 AM
Tokyo shares close higher with Wall Street after crude retreats - UPDATE
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japanese shares closed sharply higher Tuesday, tracking Wall Street's rally overnight after crude oil prices pulled back and eased worries about inflation.
Foreign investors continue to snap up Japanese
stocks, and bought more than 1.2 trillion yen of shares on a net basis in the five weeks ended last Friday, according to data released by the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday.
'In addition, there is a possibility foreign investors may shift some of their holdings from China to Japan in view of China's anti-inflationary tightening policy and political unrest as well as the major earthquake,' Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended the session up 210.37 points or 1.5 percent at 13,953.73,
off a high of 13,976.92.
The broader Topix rose 17.26 points or 1.3 percent to 1,360.05.
Gainers outnumbered decliners 1,056 to 537 with 123 issues unchanged.
Volume rose to 1.91 billion shares from 1.6 billion shares on Monday.
Overnight, the benchmark crude contract fell $1.73 to settle at $124.23 per barrel on the New York market after hitting a new trading high of $126.40.
Sentiment was also supported by HSBC Holdings PLC's announcement that its first-quarter earnings were up from a year ago, although the global banking company took a $3.2 billion writedown on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.
Exporters led the gains as investors took comfort in a stable yen.
The country's largest computer maker Fujitsu (FUJ.IL - news) soared 13.2 percent to 773 yen. Digital (Milan: DIB.MI - news) camera maker Nikon (Berlin: NKN.BE - news) surged 12.5 percent to 3,190 yen. Construction machinery maker Komatsu (Berlin: KOM1.BE - news) rose 3.8 percent to 3,220 yen. Consumer electronics giant Sony (Munich: 853687 - news) gained 3 percent at 4,790 yen. Nissan Motor climbed 3.2 percent to 960 yen.
Pioneer Corp (Munich: 857040 - news) . rallied 8.3 percent to 1,102 yen after the Nikkei (news) newspaper reported that the audio visual equipment maker plans to cut roughly 2,000 jobs as part of the restructuring of its plasma television operations.
Shares of Hitachi Ltd (Xetra: 853219 - news) advanced 5.9 percent to 719 yen after the electronics giant posted a net loss of 58.1 billion yen in the latest year, due to costs related to the restructuring of its loss-making flat panel business, but forecast a net profit of 40 billion yen in the current fiscal year.
Takeda Pharmaceutical gained 2.8 percent to 5,840 yen. Nippon Steel (Berlin: NPS.BE - news) declined 1.5 percent to 585 yen. Mizuho Financial Group gained 2.8 percent to 523,000 yen.
($1 = 103.73 yen)
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