Monday November 8, 10:09 pm Eastern Time
Tokyo stocks rise, cheered as US bull run rolls on
TOKYO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks were up by Tuesday midday as investors grew confident the recent strong tone of U.S.
stocks had not been spoiled by an anti-trust ruling against Microsoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), traders said.
The Nikkei 225 average rose 225.76 points or 1.24 percent to finish the morning session at 18,466.74. December Nikkei futures
<0#JNI:> gained 270 points to 18,450. But declining issues outpaced gainers 664 to 551 with 127 issues unchanged in modest
trading of 300.67 million shares, down from 304.74 million on Monday morning.
``I can't see any bad factors on the horizon after New York stocks that we had been worried about did not fall back,' said Futoshi
Yoshimura, head of the equity dealing department at Schroders Japan Ltd.
Tokyo stocks slipped on Monday as investors worried about a possible setback in U.S. stocks after news late on Friday that a U.S. federal judge said Microsoft had
used its monopoly power to punish its competitors.
But the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) closed Monday's session up 41.68 points or 1.34 percent at 3,143.97, setting a seventh
consecutive record high, as investors bet that Microsoft's rivals would benefit from the software giant's case.
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) rose 14.37 points or 0.13 percent to 10,718.85.
Nasdaq's winning streak supported investors' positive view of global technology shares, lifting Japanese high-tech makers such as Fujitsu Ltd .
Traders said the Nikkei average was likely to head towards 18,532.58, a high for the past 26 months that was marked on July 19.
Other factors in the market:
*Broader indices were also firmer, with the TOPIX index (^TOPX - news) of all first-section shares up 13.70 points or 0.87 percent at 1,587.44 and the Nikkei
300 index up 2.19 points or 0.72 percent at 304.96.
The second section index ended the morning session up 4.58 points or 0.18 percent at 2,579.57 and the over-the-counter index (^NOTC - news) was up 51.07
points or 2.31 percent at 2,266.02.
*Daiwa Bank Ltd climbed 16 yen or 3.26 percent to 507 in heavy trade, after it and Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co Ltd said they are in talks to jointly set up a trust
bank specialising in asset management.
Sumitomo Trust shares were slightly firmer, up six yen or 0.6 percent at 1,002.
Akira Takai, senior banking analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, said pressure on fees coupled with growing demand for high-quality services would lead to falling
profits if the banks tried to go it alone.
``But this looks like a limited alliance and there will be no change in their basic strategy,' Takai said.
*Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) unchanged at 1.70 million yen after briefly rising to 1.72 million, a high for this year. On Monday, the Japanese
government set the offer price for NTT shares it plans to sell from its holdings at 1,666,000 yen each, at the upper end of a previously indicated range.
``The shares will get back on an uptrend, as profit-taking pressure is easing since the offer price was announced,' said a broker at a leading Japanese securities
house. |
