Asian Markets Close Mixed Amid Continuing Uncertainty Over Economic Prospects
The major Asian markets ended Friday's session mixed despite the U.S. markets rising on Wednesday ahead of a holiday. Significant uncertainty remains over the time frame of an economic recovery even after the downturn has extended for more than a year now. The markets are unlikely to see significant momentum until visibility improves. Promise of governmental assistance helped the Japanese and Taiwanese markets, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 average rising to a 6-week high. While the Chinese market ended nearly flat, the South Korean market closed lower. The Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australian markets were closed today.
The Japanese market closed Friday's session higher, as the market benefited from the buoyant closing of Wall Street shares on Wednesday. The market chose to ignore economic reports that accentuated the weakness of the domestic economy. A government announcement, offering subsidies to solar power-related manufacturers, also supported buying.
The key index rose for the second straight session, although it has been down about 43% since the beginning of the year.
Crude oil futures advanced in Asian trading after they came under significant selling pressure on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the yen showed a choppy trend against most other majors.
Japan's Nikkei 225 average opened modestly higher and advanced over the course of trading to close the session at 8,740, representing a gain of 140.02 points or 1.63%. A majority of the stocks advanced in the session.
Nitto Boseki rallied 17.32%after the company announced yesterday that it would buy back 4 billion yen worth of shares. Automakers also rallied strongly in the session.
In the commodity space, Nippon Oil rose 3.73% and refiner Inpex Holdings climbed 2.30%. Asahi Glass advanced 4.51% on reports that company will invest in the production of solar cells, while Fukuoka Financial jumped 6.50%. Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsubishi Rayon, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Softbank and Tosoh gained in excess of 5% each. However, Citizen Holdings declined 7.23% and JFE Holdings slid 5.66%
