Japan’s Nikkei average booked a 19 percent gain this year, with shares of high-tech exporters leading a rebound rally on a weaker yen and as economic stimulus measures helped turn around the world economy.
The benchmark’s yearly climb followed a 42 percent plunge — the biggest loss in its 58-year history — last year when investors saw the global financial crisis take a heavy toll on risky assets including stocks.
On the Tokyo stock market’s final trading day of the year yesterday, the Nikkei ended down 0.9 percent, dragged lower by bankruptcy worries about Japan Airlines.
“Weakening in the yen, a gradual recovery in the economy and growing demand for companies helped buoy the market in time for the year-end,” said Naoki Koga, a senior fund manager at Toyota Asset Management.
“But domestic-demand sectors, on the other hand, fell out of favor this year due to uncertainty about the government’s policy. Financial stocks, in particular, were hurt by worries about capital raisings,” Koga said.
In moderate trade, the benchmark Nikkei closed at 10,546.44 after earlier rising to 10,707.51, its highest since Aug. 31. It has clawed back about 50 percent since hitting a 26-year closing low in March.
The broader Topix slipped 0.9 percent to 907.59.
In one encouraging technical sign for the Nikkei, its 25-day moving average edged above its 75-day moving average, a phenomenon known as the “Golden Cross” that can often indicate further rises and is regarded as a buying signal.
“We’re likely to see the market off to a strong start in the new year. But the focus in the first half will be on corporate earnings for the next business year, with government policies holding the key for their direction,” Koga said.
The dollar’s surge against the yen to a two-month high earlier helped shares of exporters as investors welcomed a weaker yen, which boosts exporters’ profits when repatriated, but many lost steam in afternoon trade.
The greenback was steady above 92 yen, led by buying on last-minute commercial needs before the end of the year.
Japanese financial markets will be closed today and tomorrow for the New Year’s holiday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique