Nikkei marks longest string of gains in nearly 30 years

October 19, 2017

TOKYO- The benchmark Nikkei average rose for the 13th straight session on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday, marking its longest string of gains since February 1988, backed by strong US equities.

The 225-issue Nikkei average gained 85.47 points, or 0.40 percent, to end at 21,448.52, its best finish since Oct. 18, 1996. The key market gauge climbed 26.93 points on Wednesday.

The Nikkei average briefly retook the 21,500 level for the first time in about 21 years on an intraday basis, after the Dow Jones industrial average ended above 23,000 for the first time in New York trading on Wednesday.

The TOPIX index of all TSE first-section issues extended its winning streak to a ninth session, closing up 5.40 points, or 0.31 percent, at 1,730.04, the highest closing since July 26, 2007. On Wednesday, the index gained 1.27 points.

Investors took heart from the yen's drop against the dollar, stepping up purchases of export-oriented names.

Although profit-taking weighed on the market's topside, expectations for robust corporate earnings in Japan helped maintain the market's firmness, brokers said.

"Mainstay issues attracted purchases apparently from foreign investors," said Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co.

The Tokyo market extended gains "while digesting profit-taking due to a sense of overheating," an official of a bank-linked securities firm said, noting that individual investors were cautious about buying stocks.

Mitsuo Shimizu, equity strategist at Japan Asia Securities Co., said that the market met with a wave of profit-taking in the afternoon session reflecting "investor worries about precariously high stock prices."

The market "has yet to reach its peak," Shimizu said, suggesting that the Nikkei will further rise on the back of brisk earnings by Japanese firms.

Despite the gains in the key market gauges, falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,096 to 813 in the TSE's first section, while 122 issues were unchanged. Jiji Press