I own visio and have for several months, it will be interesting to see how it reacts in the am.
FYI,
M
January 20, 1999 21:25
Tokyo stocks rise by midday as banks, techs lead
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TOKYO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks rose by midday on Thursday as banking shares attracted buying in the wake of a series of merger and tie-up announcements.
High tech shares also rose as the tech-heavy U.S. Nasdaq composite rose to a record level overnight.
The benchmark Nikkei average rose 114.91 points, or 0.82 percent, to 14,142.96. March Nikkei futures rose 180 to 14,160.
Bank shares rose 1.77 percent after announcements on Wednesday that Mitsui Trust & Banking and Chuo Trust & Banking would begin merger talks.
Toyo Trust & Banking and Sanwa Bank also announced they would form an asset management alliance.
The news has fueled optimism the industry is actively restructuring.
News that Japan's Financial Revitalisation Commission would push banks to restructure their operations by withholding public funds for those that did not make sufficient progress also helped banks.
"It looks like the Japanese government is finally getting serious about the banking sector," said Michael Wilkins, a dealer at Credit Lyonnais.
On Thursday, Commission Chairman Hakuo Yanagisawa told Reuters Television he would urge banks to write off their bad loans by March 31, the end of the business year.
"That's way ahead of schedule," said Credit Lyonnais' Wilkins.
Traders said foreign investors were buying baskets of banking issues that were components of the Nikkei 225.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi was up 36 at 1,325 and is the second most actively traded issue on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; Sanwa Bank up 77 at 1,097; and Asahi Bank up 29 at 492.
Other factors in the market include:
*High tech shares bouyant after the U.S. Nasdaq composite index rose to a record high on strong earnings from Microsoft .
Toshiba Corp was up nine at 759; Hitachi up 18 at 818.
*Daiei Inc down four at 317. The company said on Wednesday Vice President Tadasu Toba had replaced Isao Nakauchi as its president. Toba is a former president of Ajinomoto Co .
*Broader indexes were mixed. The TOPIX index of all first section shares was up 6.81 points, or 0.62 percent, at 1,096.88. The Nikkei 300 was up 2.01, or 0.93 percent, at 218.58. The second section was down 0.37 points, or 0.03 percent, at 1,181.59.
*Activity was average. A total of 258.42 million shares changed hands on the first section, while 2.95 million were traded on the second section.
*Advancing issues and declining issues were nearly deadlocked with 552 rising and 517 falling. |
