Nikkei Extends Rally to 6th Day; Steelmakers Up

Nigel Thomas
01 Sep, 2011
New York City

The benchmark index in Tokyo gained for the sixth day in a row on the rising optimism for exports. The yen traded near its record high. Steelmakers led the gainers on the falling material prices.

[R]6:00 PM Tokyo – The benchmark index in Tokyo gained for the sixth day in a row on the rising optimism for exports. The yen traded near its record high. Steelmakers led the gainers on the falling material prices.[/R]

The benchmark index in Tokyo edged higher for the sixth day in a row after China reported a slight improvement in manufacturing in August and the U.S. factory orders increased 2.4% in July. The U.S. orders increased the most in four months.

The yen edged higher to 76.58 from 76.67.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 105.60 or 1.18% to 9,060.80 and the broader Topix index gained 1% or 7.68 to 778.28.

Trading volume on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange decreased to 1.7 billion from 1.85 billion shares in on Wednesday.

Stock Movers

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group added 0.9% to 347 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group decreased 0.2% to 2,250 yen. Mizuho Financial Group closed unchanged at 116 yen.

Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co. increased 2,500 yen to 91,200 yen.

Energy linked companies traded higher after crude oil in New York gained. Inpex Corp increased 1% to 520,000 yen and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co added 70 yen to 3,220 yen.

Steelmakers increased on the expectations that the falling material prices will benefit the industry. Nippon Steel increased 3.1% to 236 yen and JFE Holdings added 2.8% to 1,816 yen. Kobe Steel gained 2.8% to 146 yen.

Toyota Motor increased 20 yen to 2,754 yen and Honda Motor Co. gained 3.4 to 2,557 yen and Nissan Motor added 2.6% 715 yen.

Sony Corp added 2% to 1,698 yen, Hitachi Ltd increased 0.5% to 413 yen and Toshiba Corp fell 2.4% to 331 yen.

Construction equipment makers liked to China closed higher. Komatsu extended gains for the third day by 4.2% to 2,109 yen and Hitachi Construction Machinery advanced 4.6% to 1,491 yen.