The Japanese market is trading notably higher on Friday with the overnight surge on Wall Street on the back of some encouraging economic data aiding sentiment. A section of investors, however, appear to be treading a bit cautiously ahead of the central bank’s interest rate decision.
Shares from insurance, securities and rubber sections are mostly trading higher. Automobile and financial stocks are also moving up. Marine transport stocks moved up, following the Baltic Dry Index extending its surge to a fifth successive day on Thursday.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which rose to 8,880.2, is currently trading at 8,861, up 36.4 points or 0.4 percent from its previous close.
Shionogi & Co. shares are up 4.8 percent. Sumitomo Metal Mining is trading higher by around 4 percent. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Toho Zinc, Furukawa, Mitsumi Electric, Sumco Corp., Mitsui OSK Lines, Mitsubishi Materials, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings and Dai-ichi Life Insurance are trading higher by 2 to 3 percent.
Trend Micro, Tokai Carbon, Inpex Corp., Yahoo Japan, Komatsu, Pacific Metals, Japan Tobacco, Fast Retailing, Sumitomo Osaka, Nippon Yusen KK and Fuji Electric are also trading notably higher.
Takeda Pharmaceutical said it will buy U.S. bio venture firm LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc. to strengthen its vaccine business and broaden its lineup of candidate drugs. The company will make this acquisition through its U.S. unit for an upfront payment of $60 million, or about 4.7 billion yen. The deal is expected to be completed within the next few weeks. The stock is currently trading higher by about half a percent.
Among the notable losers, Nikon Corp. is down 3.6 percent, Mitsubishi Motors, Unitika, Fujitsu, Sharp Corp., Nisshin Steel Holdings, Softbank Corp., Kobe Steel, Kansai Electric Power, J Front Retailing and Nissan Motor are down 1 to 3 percent.
Shares of Seven & I Holdings Inc. are trading lower, losing 2.6 percent, following the company revising down its earnings forecast for the year.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan will conclude its monetary policy meeting later in the day and is widely expected to keep rates on hold at the current level of 0 to 0.10 percent.
Japan also will see the preliminary August figures for its leading and coincident indexes, with forecasts suggesting scores of 93.5 and 93.6, respectively. That follows a leading index score of 93.0 in July and a coincident reading of 93.8.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid-78 yen level in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 78.54 to the dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea are trading higher. Markets in China are closed for National Day Holiday. Markets across the region had ended mostly higher on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks moved mostly higher on Thursday, adding to the gains that were posted in the previous session, as traders reacted positively to the latest U.S. economic data.
The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, ending the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow rose 80.8 points or 0.6 percent to 13,575.4, the Nasdaq climbed 14.2 points or 0.5 percent to 3,149.5 and the S&P 500 advanced 10.4 points or 0.7 percent to 1,461.4.
Major European markets ended roughly flat on Thursday. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index closed just above the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index edged down by 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
Source: rttnews.com
