Japanese shares rise on earnings optimism, Wall Street boost

West Japan Railway

03/02/2021 03:08

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rose on Wednesday,
with transport stocks leading gains, as Wall Street's
tech-driven rally overnight and strong domestic earnings
forecasts boosted market sentiment. 
    The Nikkei share average  .N225  edged up 0.56% to 28,520.55
as of 0204 GMT, while the broader Topix  .TOPX  gained 0.70% to
1860.12.
    "Robust earnings of global IT firms have boosted investor
expectations for better earnings of Japanese companies, while
worries about a short-squeeze triggered by U.S. retail investors
had been erased," said Koichi Kurose, chief strategist at Resona
Asset Management.
    U.S. stocks finished sharply higher for a second straight
day overnight, helped by gains in Amazon.com  AMZN.O  and
Google-parent Alphabet  GOOGL.O  ahead of their results and by
optimism over progress on a U.S. pandemic relief package.  .N 
    Mitsubishi Motor  7211.T , up 12.15%, led gains on the
Nikkei 225 index after it cut its annual net loss forecast on
Tuesday. 
    Panasonic  6752.T  rose 3.11% after the electronics
conglomerate said its battery business supplying Tesla Inc
 TSLA.O  would be profitable this fiscal year, and raised its
full-year operating profit forecast by more than half.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K80CV
    Toyota Motor  7203.T  jumped 3.66% after its autoparts
affiliates Denso  6902.T  and Aisin Seiki  7259.T  raised their
outlook. Denso gained 3.26% and Aisin Seiki rose 1.9%.     
    Pandemic-beaten transport shares gained, with West Japan
Railway  9021.T  rising 5.19% and East Japan Railway  9020.T 
gaining 3.47%. Japan Airlines  9201.T  jumped 4.2% while ANA
Holdings  9202.T  rose 1.7%. 
    Transport shares were buoyed by hopes that a drop in the
number of daily COVID-19 infections would boost travel, Kurose
said.
    Japan on Tuesday extended the state of emergency in Tokyo
and other regions for another month, seeking to keep the upper
hand over a COVID-19 outbreak, although daily case numbers have
begun to edge down.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K80B3
    

 (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
 ((813-4563-2711, junko.fujita@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters
Messaging:junko.fujita.reuters.com@reuters.net;))