Nikkei in Tokyo Extends Two Week Rally, Manufacturing Growth Advances

Hiruki Nakamura
21 Aug, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo closed higher and extended two-week advance and the weaker yen helped corporate earnings. The latest private survey showed manufacturing in Japan increased in August but the growth rate declined in China.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo closed higher and extended two-week advance and the weaker yen helped corporate earnings. The latest private survey showed manufacturing in Japan increased in August but the growth rate declined in China.[/R]

Stocks in Japan closed higher and extended two-week rise and the yen weakened.

Latest corporate earnings showed a rising trend helped by weak yen and rising global sales.

The latest flash purchasing managers'' index from Markit Economics revealed, manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand at an accelerating pace in August to score of 52.4 following the 50.5 reading in July.

Among the individual components of the survey manufacturing output index swung to a rise after contracting in July.

The economy is forecasted to expand 2.9% in the current quarter ending in September after contracting 6.8% in the June quarter.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 131.75 or 0.8% to 15,586.20 and the broader Topix index gained 11.55 to 1,291.19.

The yen closed at 103.15 against one U.S. dollar.

In addition, the latest minutes of meeting from the U.S. Federal Reserve showed that the central bank is on target to end its asset purchase program by October.

As expected, the policy makers committee lowered its monthly asset purchase plan by $10 billion to $25 billion.

Stocks in Review

Honda Motor Co Ltd increased 2.3% to 3,579.50 yen after the North American unit reported rising sales.

Mazda Motor Corp jumped 2.8% to 2,487 yen after the Nikkei newspaper reported that the company planning to become debt free by the year ending March 2017.

SBI Holdings Inc gained 2.1% to 1,243 yen after the financial services provider and its subsidiaries today sold 66.5% stake or 15.8 million shares of SBI Mortgage to CSM Holdings, L.P for 16 billion yen.

The company is expected to report profit of 20 billion yen on sale of equity in affiliates as a non-consolidated basis for the fiscal year ending in March 2015.