Tokyo Stocks Turn Moderately Higher on Buying on Dips

January 19, 2018

Tokyo- Stocks rebounded moderately on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, supported by buying on dips.

The 225-issue Nikkei average rose 44.69 points, or 0.19 pct, to end at 23,808.06. On Thursday, the key market gauge dropped 104.97 points.

The TOPIX index of all first-section issues closed up 12.88 points, or 0.69 pct, at 1,889.74, after falling 13.96 points the previous day.

Stocks got off to a firmer start, backed by brisk corporate earnings reports and hopes for similarly good business results from major companies, brokers said.

But the upside of the market was weighed down by selling in a cautious mood created due to the yen's strengthening against the dollar, brokers said.

After briefly slipping into negative territory, the Nikkei average managed to close in the plus side, supported by the firmness of semiconductor-related and financial issues.

Despite the Nikkei's temporary fall into the minus side, the TOPIX index stayed in positive territory throughout Friday.

"The movements of the TOPIX reflect the actual condition of the market more accurately," said Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

"The market condition was firm overall," Ota said, noting that rising issues outnumbered falling ones from the beginning to the end of Friday trading.

The Tokyo market was not heavily affected by the overnight sluggish performances of U.S. equities, as Tokyo stocks fell in advance due to concern over the fate of a U.S. stopgap bill to fund federal agencies and avoid a government shutdown, said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co.

Investors were cautiously waiting to see whether the U.S. Senate will approve the bill, Miura said. Before the results come out, market players "lacked reasons to buy or sell further" on Friday, he said.

The course of the bill will affect the Tokyo stock market next week, Miura predicted.

Rising issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,392 to 574 in the TSE's first section, while 98 issues were unchanged.

Volume fell to 1,392 million shares from 1,820 million shares on Thursday.

Nintendo attracted purchases on continued expectations for brisk sales of its new product Nintendo Labo, which the game maker plans to release in April.

Retailer Ryohin Keikaku was upbeat after it announced last week strong earnings for March-November.

Machinery maker Tsudakoma surged 20.92 pct after posting on Thursday rosy earnings expectations for the year ending in November.

By contrast, power and gas utilities, including Chubu Electric, Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas, were downbeat, along with technology firm Kyocera and industrial robot maker Fanuc.

In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average closed up 30 points at 23,800. Jiji Press