Nikkei rises 1% on economic recovery hopes, upbeat machinery data

Mitsui Fudosan Co

09/12/2020 03:21

TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese shares bounced back on
Wednesday as positive COVID-19 vaccine news globally supported
economic recovery hopes, while better-than-expected domestic
machinery orders data also lifted investor sentiment.
    The benchmark Nikkei share average  .N225  rose 1.04% to
26,743.52 by the midday break, after declining for three
straight sessions. The broader Topix  .TOPX  added 0.88% to
1,774.24.
    Overnight, the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notched record highs
on a string of vaccine news and seeming progress on U.S.
stimulus talks.  .N 
    Hopes for a swift global economic recovery grew as 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 a
2.8% expansion forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.
    The upbeat data sent shares of machinery companies higher.
Komatsu  6301.T  climbed 2.58%, SMC Corp  6273.T  added 2.27%
and Fanuc Corp  6954.T  rose 2.02%.
    Other sectors on the main bourse followed suit. Paper and
pulp  .IPAPR.T  and textiles  .ITXTL.T  rose 2.45% and 1.13%,
respectively.
    Elsewhere, semiconductors tracked their U.S. peers higher.
Advantest Corp  6857.T  rose nearly 1.3%, while SUMCO  3436.T 
spiked 4.38%
    Tokyo Dome Corp  9681.T  slipped nearly 4.5% after property
developer Mitsui Fudosan  8801.T  said on Tuesday that Oasis
Management was willing to tender shares in the company.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2IO2S6
    The Mothers Index  .MTHR  of start-up firm shares bucked the
overall trend to decline 1.96%.

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