Tokyo Stocks Up Nearly 3 Percent
Mon March 24, 2003 12:23 AM ET
reuters.com
TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks clung to gains of nearly three percent on Monday afternoon as Canon Inc 7751.T and other blue chip exporters rallied to catch up with rises in their global peers in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"As the war premium fades, globally we've seen funds flow out of bonds, gold and other assets and back into stocks," said Norihiro Fujito, senior strategist at Mitsubishi Securities.
"Tokyo was running behind the pack so what we're seeing is just a catch up with gains in global markets."
The Nikkei average .N225 was up 2.86 percent at 8,429.02 as of 12:02 a.m. EST, after rising as high as 8,443.83, a three-week high. The broader TOPIX index .TOPX was up 2.55 percent at 828.08.
That came after the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI surged over eight percent in its best week since October 1982. The Dow jumped nearly three percent on Friday, when Tokyo markets were closed for a public holiday.
Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T , Japan's biggest auto maker and the most active issue by value, was up 3.35 percent at 2,935 yen, while office equipment giant Canon surged 5.13 percent to 4,510.
Traders said that one support factor was last-minute buying ahead of Tuesday, the last day on which buyers are eligible to receive dividends for the 2002/03 fiscal year.
But many players were wary, with the dollar weakening and U.S. Nasdaq futures on Globex 0#ND: down around one percent as reports of fierce fighting led some to question the view that the war in Iraq would be over quickly.
Early on Monday, U.S. warplanes again pummeled Baghdad after a day in which Iraqi forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein inflicted casualties and took their first U.S. prisoners.
By mid afternoon on Monday, oil prices jumped off four-month lows and the dollar was around 121.0 yen JPY= , retreating from a three-month high of around 121.88 yen late last week.
Square Co Ltd 9620.T jumped 14.27 percent to 1,594 yen after the game maker raised its group net profit forecast for the year ending March 31 by 140 percent to 11.5 billion yen ($95 million), helped by strong sales of its "Final Fantasy" series.
Another notable winner was Toho Co Ltd 9602.T , up 3.62 percent at 1,115 yen after Japan's biggest film distributor's "Spirited Away," directed by the legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, won the Oscar for best animated feature.
In contrast, Advantest Corp 6857.T slumped 2.2 percent to 4,890 yen after Japan's largest maker of chip testing equipment last week nearly doubled its full-year net loss forecast as a dull economy and uncertainty over war in Iraq took their toll. |
