Nikkei ends at near 30-year high on recovery hopes, upbeat machinery data

Mitsui Fudosan Co

09/12/2020 07:19

TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese shares closed at a near
30-year high on Wednesday, as Britain's COVID-19 vaccine rollout
and seeming progress over a U.S. stimulus deal boosted hopes of
a swift global economic recovery, while upbeat domestic
machinery data also buoyed sentiment.
    The benchmark Nikkei share average  .N225  rose 1.33% to
26,817.94, its highest closing since April 17, 1991. The broader
Topix  .TOPX  rose 1.17% to 1,779.42.
    SoftBank Group Corp  9984.T  shares did most of the
uplifting in the afternoon trade, jumping as much as 7% on a
Bloomberg News report that the conglomerate was considering
buying back shares to boost Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi
Son's stake.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IP070
    Overnight, the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notched record highs.
 .N 
    Britain on Tuesday became the first Western nation to begin
a wide vaccination campaign, and on encouraging COVID-19 vaccine
news from Johnson & Johnson  JNJ.N  and Pfizer Inc  PFE.N .
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2IO40J  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IO0Z6
    Underpinning market sentiment further, data showed Japan's
core machinery orders rebounded sharply in October from the
previous month's drop.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2IO2ZU
    The 17.1% jump was the largest month-on-month rise since
comparable data became available in 2005, and far exceeded
economists' forecast of 2.8% in a Reuters poll.
    "The strong data could lead to overall firmness in the
manufacturing industry, as core machinery orders are leading
indicators for capital spending," said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief
fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co,
adding that cyclical machinery and material sectors
outperformed.
    Machinery companies Komatsu  6301.T , SMC Corp  6273.T  and
Fanuc Corp  6954.T  climbed between 2.27% and 2.98%.
    Other sectors on the main bourse followed suit, with Paper
and pulp  .IPAPR.T  and textiles  .ITXTL.T  rose 2.43% and
1.56%, respectively.
    Semiconductors tracked their U.S. peers higher. Advantest
Corp  6857.T  rose nearly 1.3%, while SUMCO  3436.T  spiked
5.41%
    Tokyo Dome Corp  9681.T  slipped 4.4%, after property
developer Mitsui Fudosan  8801.T  said Oasis Management was
willing to tender shares of the ballpark operator to it.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2IO2S6
    The Mothers Index  .MTHR  of start-up firm shares bucked the
overall trend to decline 1.39%.

 (Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and
Rashmi Aich)
 ((eimi.yamamitsu@thomsonreuters.com;))