Where was Lehman a few days or two weeks ago?
Anyone here not selling out of Japan techs next January?
More dribbles out of a crooked market place ...
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
End Up For 4th Day On Strong New FY Outlook
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The Nikkei 225 stock average finished sharply higher Wednesday, rising for the fourth straight session amid a continued bullish outlook for the new fiscal year starting April 1.
In addition to the usual buyers such as foreigners, domestic individual investors and investment trusts, pension funds are now actively buying Japanese blue chips for their new portfolios, players said.
The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues soared 332.31 points, or 1.6%, Wednesday to 20706.65, its highest closing level since December 1996.
In the broader market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange's First Section, advancers overwhelmed decliners 878 to 400, while 107 issues were unchanged from Tuesday. The Topix index of all TSE First Section issues rallied 52.08 points, or 3.1%, to 1732.84 as large-cap issues not included in the Nikkei 225 gained strongly.
"The market is in a clear upward trend in terms of technical analysis and favorable liquidity," said a general manager at a mid-sized Japanese brokerage house.
Hiroichi Nishi, deputy general manager at Nikko Securities Co., said the Nikkei 225, in the medium to long term, is "technically targeting the 22666.80 closing high set in June 1996."
Many analysts expect inflows of investment from institutional and individual investors to buoy Japanese stock prices in the April-June quarter, lifting the Nikkei 225 index well above 20000 on a sustained basis.
Some 17 trillion yen in postal savings funds are due to mature in the April-June quarter, and at least some portion of them will likely flow into the market, either by direct investment or in the form of mutual funds, players said.
The market will likely remain solid for the rest of the week, with six more new stock investment trusts to be launched Friday. Institutional investors are also expected to conduct "window dressing" activities for the March 31 fiscal yearend, traders said.
The near-term June Nikkei futures contract ended up 190 points at 20670 on the Osaka Securities Exchange.
Volume on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange is estimated at 622 million shares, up from 530.25 million shares Tuesday.
Some players attributed gains this session to hopes for a recovery in the Japanese economy.
Wednesday morning, the government reported that Japan's adjusted February industrial output rose 3.0% from January due partly to the extra day in February this year, slightly faster than the 2.8% on-month increase expected in a survey of economists.
Although buying orders were broadly placed, high-technology blue chips remained the center of attention, traders said.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone rose 40,000 yen to 1.66 million yen, NTT DoCoMo added 70,000 yen to 4.37 million yen, Advantest gained 1,640 yen to 21,100 yen, Tokyo Electron was up 1,530 yen at 16,980 yen, while Kyocera closed 910 yen higher at 16,910 yen.
Matsushita Electric, Matsushita Communication Industrial, NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, NTT Data, Hoya, Toyota and Honda also ended higher.
Leading Internet stocks, such as Softbank, Hikari Tsushin and Yahoo Japan, closed higher as well, following recent weakness.
Sony gained 610 yen to 13,730 yen and Sakura Bank rose 20 yen to 745 yen on news that Sony is likely to ask Sakura and other financial institutions to cooperate in the new online bank that the electronics giant is planning to set up.
Nikon and Canon soared following a newspaper report that both companies will sharply increase production of steppers, which are used to make semiconductors. Nikon gained 220 yen to 3,930 yen, and Canon soared 170 yen to 4,540 yen.
Bank shares rose as investor unwinding of cross-shareholdings ahead of the fiscal yearend subsided. Brokerages gained sharply amid expectations that active stock trading will boost their commission revenues. |
