Asia's biggest stock exchange finished its final day of trading for the year yesterday on a high note, with stocks rallying to cap a year, during which the benchmark gained 7.6 percent on hopes Japan's economy is on a rebound.
Tokyo Stock Exchange shares closed higher across a broad range of sectors, including banking, retail and export-related issues, as traders and guests clapped hands rhythmically to close the year according to Japanese tradition after a half-day session. The yen was up against the US dollar.
PHOTO: AFP
The Nikkei Stock Average was up 107.20 points, or 0.94 percent, closing the year at 11,488.76 points -- the best finish for the blue-chip index since July 13, when it closed at 11,608.62 points. On Wednesday, the Nikkei lost 42.57 points, or 0.37 percent.
The dollar bought ?103.73 at 3pm yesterday, up ?0.51 from late Wednesday in Tokyo but below the ?103.80 it bought in New York later that day.
On the stock market, investors bought on expectations of a global economic recovery next year.
Technology issues Advantest Corp and Canon Inc and automakers Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co closed higher. Banks UFJ Holdings Inc and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc also rose, as did major retailer Ito-Yokado Co, as well as real estate Mitsui Fudosan Co.
Many market analysts expect the Nikkei index to rise gradually toward the latter half of next year as global economies recover and production and sales at Japan's major exporters begin to rise.
US Morgan Stanley equities strategist Naoki Kamiyama said if the market factors in the outlook for an end to deflation and a worldwide cyclical economic recovery, the Nikkei "will rise toward 13,000 toward the end of 2005."
Kamiyama said the next year will be the final year of Japan's structural reforms.
Some analysts say the danger of deflation -- or continually falling prices that brings down wages and profits that have plagued Japan for years -- may be over next year. Japan's central bank has kept interest rates virtually at zero for the past three years to help fight deflation.
This year, strong market hopes for an end to deflation helped the Nikkei index climb nearly 17 percent from a year-low of 10,365.40 reached on Feb. 10 to a year-high of 12,163.89 on April 26, but those hopes then gave way to the reality of a slow slide in prices.
For the whole year, the Nikkei gained 7.6 percent from the end of last year on signs the world's second-largest economy has been on the rebound for the last two years thanks to robust exports, especially to China and other Asian countries.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary