Japanese stocks yesterday closed at a more than 18-year high, surpassing the height of the global information-technology bubble, boosted by confidence that Greece will reach a last-minute debt reform deal with its creditors this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 0.28 percent, or 58.61 points, to 20,868.03, its highest close since December 1996.
It rose to above the Japanese peak of the so-called dotcom bubble in April 2000 when the index hit 20,833. The TOPIX of all first-section issues was up 0.21 percent, or 3.49 points, at 1,679.89.
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“Finally,” Masaaki Yamaguchi, an equity market strategist at Nomura Holdings, told Bloomberg News.
With the milestone out of the way, “we’ll see an even higher tolerance for risk,” he said.
The Nikkei has climbed nearly 20 percent since the start of this year, following a rise of more than 7 percent last year and a 57 percent surge in 2013.
“The Japanese economy is improving and corporate earnings are doing well,” SMBC Nikko Securities Inc manager Hiroichi Nishi told Bloomberg News. “As monetary policy in the United States moves towards normalization, we’ll have moderate rate hikes.”
“We’ll continue to have to watch the situation in Greece carefully, but within the wait-and-see mood there’s increasing hope that they’ll come to an agreement,” he said.
Investors were betting on a breakthrough to end a five-month stalemate between Greece and its creditors, which would unlock billions of euros in funding Athens needs to repay a debt payment due on Tuesday. Failure to do so would see it default and possibly crash out of the eurozone, and even the EU.
Eurozone finance ministers were scheduled to meet yesterday to try to secure an agreement before a full EU summit today.
Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai piled on 2.48 percent, or 113.66 points, to 4,690.15 — extending Tuesday’s 2.19 percent gain — after plunging more than 13 percent last week.
Analysts said the market is benefiting from the release of cash that had been tied up for a recent batch of initial public offerings.
Hong Kong advanced 0.26 percent, or 71.51 points, to 27,404.97.
Sydney was flat, adding 2.5 points to close at 5,686.8, and Seoul was 0.21 percent, or 4.33 points, higher at 2,085.53. Taipei was flat at 9,397.31, Wellington ended marginally higher at 5,775.48, while Manila closed 1.21 percent higher at 7,643.33.
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