Japan stocks will look Thursday to build on the momentum of Wednesda's rebound and Wall Street's up-side lead. Late afternoon bargain-hunting turned around a market that was 200 points lower in early trading. The benchmark Nikkei average closed up 0.8 percent or 128.69 points at 15,608.88. The broader TOPIX was up 0.7 percent at 1,526.63. The session's top gainers included Nikon Corp with a rise of 6.38%, Kyowa Hakko Kog gained 5.89 percent, Casio Computer advanced 4.97 percent, West Japan Railway was up 4.76 percent and Clarion Company Ltd moved 4.66 percent higher. Nippon Steel Corp led the steel production sector lower. Nippon finished down 2.3 percent at 640 yen. Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd lost 3 percent to 456 yen and JFE Holdings Inc dropped 3.7 percent to 5,550 yen.Heavy equipment maker Komatsu Ltd. lost 0.64 percent. Toho Zinc Company Limited was the day's biggest decliner, dropping 4.35 percent. Also losing ground were JFE Holdings which fell 3.65 percent, Oki Electric Industries was off 3.61 percent, Nisshinbo Industries dropped 3.55percent and Comsys Holdings fell 3.36 percent. Among the retailers, Fast Retailing Co., Asia's biggest clothing chain, gained 4.2 percent, J. Front Retailing Co., Japan's largest department store operator moved 3.3 percent higher.After the close, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced successful completion of an $849 million bid to buy out minority shareholders in supermarket chain Seiyu Ltd. In trading overseas, Wall Street bounced back on Wednesday thanks, in large part, to a report that showed hiring in the U.S. private sector expanded at a faster pace in November. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 196.23 points at 13,444.96. The broader markets were also in positive territory, with the Standard and Poors 500 Index ahead by 22.22 points at 1,485.01 and the Nasdaq Composite Index up by 46.53 at 2,666.36. Back in the Asia/Pacific region, New Zealand's NZX50 Index lost 19.30 points Wednesday to close at 4,034.55. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shot up 465.86 points to close at 29,345.45. The Shanghai Composite Index posted a gain of 126.76 points to finish at 5,042.65. Early Thursday, Japan traders get a look at the Bank of Japan's stock and bond investment totals for the week of November 30. Later in the day, the Economic and Social Research Institute releases its leading economic index for October, the Cabinet office releases its coincident index for October and the Machine and Tool Builders Association releases its machine tool orders data for November.
December 5, 2007 5:56 PM