Tokyo shares up in afternoon, blue chips bounce
Wed March 26, 2003 12:44 AM ET
reuters.com
TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Japanese shares were clinging to solid gains late on Wednesday afternoon as investors snapped up battered stocks such as Sony Corp 6758.T after a rebound on Wall Street, while selling eased ahead of the fiscal year-end.
"There is cautious optimism that the war in Iraq will still be over quickly, and bank selling has eased in recent days, providing support," said Masatoshi Sato, manager at the equity division of Mizuho Investors Securities.
"But even if war ends quickly, worries about deflation and Japan's weak banking system mean we can't expect much of a rally," he said, forecasting that the Nikkei would remain pinned below 8,500 in coming days.
The Nikkei average .N225 was up 1.26 percent at 8,342.20 as of 0525 GMT, paring back its biggest loss in three weeks in the previous session.
The capital-weighted TOPIX index .TOPX of all first section issues was up 0.96 percent at 820.09.
NTT DoCoMo Inc 9437.T , the largest issue on the Tokyo bourse by market capitalisation, shot up 3.08 percent to 234,000 yen after a six percent dive in the previous session.
Traders said buying by public pension funds was also helping lift the market ahead of the fiscal year-end.
"The market often has a bullish bias around this time of year as a majority would be happy if the market rises towards March 31," said Koichi Seki, an equity manager at Chuo Securities.
Many banks and companies will use that deadline to gauge the size of latent losses on their shareholdings, swollen by the Nikkei's recent fall to 20-year lows.
Banks have been rushing to offload portions of these shares by the end of the fiscal year, but that selling is seen as having passed its peak.
Consumer electronics giant Sony was up 1.12 percent at 4,500 yen after falling 2.41 percent the previous day.
That came after the U.S. blue-chip Dow .DJI rose 0.8 percent, paring the previous day's 3.6 percent fall in a rally prompted by reports that an uprising against Saddam Hussein's forces may have started in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
War worries, however, continued to weigh on some sectors.
All Nippon Airways Co Ltd 9202.T , Japan's number-two airline, tumbled 8.14 percent to 237 yen as investors took profits on recent gains, amid continued worries that war in Iraq will depress air traffic.
The airline sector .IAIRL.T had rallied around 10 percent and was the biggest sector winner since March 17, when President George W. Bush issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iraq to disarm, triggering a rebound in Tokyo stocks. |
