Tech-stock rallies send Nikkei higher
By FT.com staff
Published: March 15 2002 01:12 | Last Updated: March 15 2002 01:21
markets.ft.com
Japanese investors began Friday's session in a buying mood, although the progress of the morning's key stocks - Japan Air Lines and Seiyu - proved vague. Higher trends in blue-chip electronics groups reflected the end of a high-tech selling wave that began in the US earlier in the week.
Shortly after the open, the Nikkei 225 index was up 86.58 at 11,655.40, and the Topix index gained 9.21 to 1,093.09.
Japan's government, which on Thursday offered a mildly more optimistic economic outlook for the first time in nine months, helped fuel the buying mood, as did a higher close in that day's session.
Japan Air Lines suffered some selling after the country's Fair Trade Commission, a top regulatory agency, said it could deliver a ruling on Friday concerning the airliner's plans for a merger.
Japan Air Lines fell 2.1 per cent to ¥373. But Japan Air System, JAL's proposed merger partner, was up 0.9 per cent at ¥3,330. All Nippon Airways, JAL's biggest rival, was up 2.4 per cent at ¥373.
Seiyu, the supermarket chain in which US-based Wal-Mart proposes to buy a majority stake, was unchanged in the opening moments at ¥380 after a rally on Thursday. |
