Tokyo stocks jumped 3.98% on Monday, following sharp gains on Wall Street and as a weaker yen boosted exporters' shares.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which had closed at a five-month low on Friday, rose 578.72 points to finish at 15,111.23. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares jumped 4%, or 47.12 points, to 1,224.34.
"Based on the sheer number of stocks that were flashing oversold signals from last week's selloff, the argument can be made that a short-cover rally was in order and just looking for a catalyst," said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO at Investrust.
By Friday's close the Nikkei had lost more than 10% since hitting a seven-year high of 16,374.14 in late September -- putting the benchmark index into correction territory.
"The Nikkei is up, tracing gains in Europe and the U.S. late last week, as well as a weaker yen," said Daisuke Uno, chief market strategist of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
"But the rally in Europe and the U.S. also was, so far, a one-day event. I don't think this boost today will create an upward breakthrough yet."
The dollar rose to 107.26 yen Monday afternoon from 106.78 yen in New York Friday afternoon, giving a lift to Japanese exporters whose profitability benefits from a weaker yen.
© (c) 2014 AFP
1 Comment
Login to comment
nath
another day down the casino