Monday, 07 September 2015 12:44
TOKYO: Tokyo shares closed up 0.38 percent Monday on late bargain-hunting after swinging between gains and losses following a weak session on Wall Street and worries about the Chinese economy.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 68.31 points to end at 17,860.47, while the Topix index of all first-section shares edged up 0.08 percent, or 1.12 points, to 1,445.65.
The late bargain-hunting in Tokyo followed a volatile morning session amid concerns about China’s economy as mainland markets reopened after an extended holiday weekend.
“The Nikkei index ended in positive territory as players bought back shares which lost ground heavily in the past weeks,” said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.
The Nikkei slumped seven percent last week.
Adding to concerns about China, Beijing on Monday lowered the country’s GDP growth figure for last year by ten basis points to 7.3 percent.
In the United States, Friday’s release of a mixed August US jobs report pushed down Wall Street stocks and left the prospect of an early US rate rise uncertain at best.
“Trading is likely to remain volatile at least until the Fed makes a rate hike decision,” Horiuchi said.
Toshiba shares rose 1.75 percent to 352.7 yen as the firm said would book a $ 318 million loss for its latest fiscal year in the wake of a billion dollar profit-padding scandal.
Investors appeared to cheer the finalised figures as bringing a sense of closure to the saga.
Toyota shares gained 1.21 percent to 7,089 yen, Panasonic was up 2.16 percent at 1,248.5 yen and market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo chain, rose 0.43 percent to 46,665 yen.
In forex trade the dollar bought 119.39 yen, up from 119.00 yen Friday in New York.
