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.
Photo: AP
“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.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS