Nikkei Rallies as Yen Advances, Volatile Shanghai Index Soars 5%

Hiruki Nakamura
27 Aug, 2015
New York City

Nikkei average in Tokyo extended the recent rebound to the fifth day on the back of resurgent markets in New York and Europe. Yen continued to strengthen and indexes in Asia soared and currencies in India, Indonesia and Australia edged higher. Stocks in Shanghai surged to close up 5%.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Nikkei average in Tokyo extended the recent rebound to the fifth day on the back of resurgent markets in New York and Europe. Yen continued to strengthen and indexes in Asia soared and currencies in India, Indonesia and Australia edged higher. Stocks in Shanghai surged to close up 5%.[/R]

Nikkei average in Tokyo extended the recent rebound to the fifth day on the back of resurgent markets in New York and Europe.

Currencies in emerging markets in Asia rebounded from record lows and Shanghai market indexes struggled for most of the session but surged in the final thirty minutes to lift index up 5% at close.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 197.61 or 1.1% to 18,574.44 and the broader Topix index increased 21.44 or 1.5% to 1,500.41.

The yen strengthened to 120.47 against a dollar.

Stocks in Review

Askul Corporation jumped 2.4% to 4,065 yen after the office products retailer reported net sales in August soared 20.4% to 22.46 billion yen from 18.65 billion yen in a year ago month. In July, net sales jumped 13.2% to 21.62 billion yen.

Askul said non-consolidated net sales of mainstay business increased 16.3% to 20.01 billion yen and sales in LOHACO segment surged 68.7% to 2.45 billion yen form a year ago month.

Separately, today the office products retailer completed share buy back of up to 3.40 million, representing 6.2% of outstanding shares at the average price of 13.28 billion yen.

Asahi Kasei Corp rose 0.7% to 940.30 yen after the resins and other plastic products maker agreed to acquire the U.S.-based Polypore International, Inc, for undisclosed financial terms.

SBI Holdings Inc gained 0.9% to 1,457 yen after the financial services provider said its China-based subsidiary agreed to acquire Shanghai-based INESA (Group) Co., Ltd.

At the end of 2014, leasing market in China surged rapidly to 64 trillion yen.

Toyota Motor Corporation increased 1.5% to 7,026 yen and the auto maker plans to “gradually” re-start production in Tianjin, China unit from today.

Toyota halted operations at two assembly factories in Tianjin in the aftermath of chemical explosions on Aug 12. Production stoppage is costing $102 million a week to the auto maker.