Reuters: Market News: Nikkei hits fresh 8-1/2 mth high on U.S. easing hopes

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Nikkei hits fresh 8-1/2 mth high on U.S. easing hopes Mar 27th 2012, 01:20 Mon Mar 26, 2012 9:20pm EDT * Exporters, brokerages rise * Futures buying to lead Nikkei higher this week - Nomura * Next Nikkei upside seen as July 8 intraday high of 10,207 By Mari Saito TOKYO, March 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average hit its highest level in more than eight months on Tuesday, lifted by gains on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled supportive policy may continue despite a brightening job picture. Major exporters bounced back from a slight correction in Tokyo markets, with Toyota Motor Corp up 2.2 percent, Canon Inc jumping 2.6 percent, and Sony Corp gaining 2.7 percent. The benchmark Nikkei advanced 1.6 percent to 10,181.51, its highest level since early July, after jumping as high as 10,193.04 in early morning trade. The index lost 1.2 percent last week and eked out modest gains on Monday. Market participants said the next upside level was the July 8 intraday high of 10,207.91. "There is certainly an impression that the Nikkei may climb even higher in the afternoon trading session ... If we take pre-disaster (Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami) foreign buying as neutral weight, we are not closing in yet on that amount of buying," said Jun Yunoki, an equity strategy analyst at Nomura. "I think foreign buying will continue as they are still slightly underweight in Japanese equities," said Yunoki. Yunoki said futures buying will push the index higher this week as domestic passive funds are expected to buy as they look to reinvest dividends. Outperforming the broader market was Japan's securities sector, jumping 3.2 percent as the best sectoral gainer on the main board. Japan's No. 1 investment bank Nomura Holdings surged 3.6 percent and reversed recent losses, while Daiwa Securities Group gained 3.3 percent. The broader Topix index advanced 1.6 percent to 865.23. U.S. indexes gained more than 1 percent overnight following comments from the Fed's Bernanke, which reinforced the view that further quantitative easing from the central bank may be possible. German business sentiment climbed for a fifth straight month in March, latest data by Munich-based Ifo think tank showed on Monday. "The global correction mood that has prevailed on markets recently will now shift on Bernanke's comments and positive data out of Europe. Stocks will be strong today," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, assistant manager of investment strategy at Okasan Securities. A slightly softer yen against the euro and dollar offered support. The dollar was last traded at 82 . 882 yen on the EBS platform, while the euro was at 110.710 yen. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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