Reuters: Market News: Nikkei nudges up in light trade, dip-buying supports

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Nikkei nudges up in light trade, dip-buying supports Mar 26th 2012, 01:36 Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:36pm EDT * Nikkei gains 0.2 pct * Nissan top percentage gainer on core 30 * Mitsubishi Materials, Sumitomo Metal up on Codelco earnings * Steelmakers, real estate log top sectoral gains By Mari Saito TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share index edged up on Monday after last week's slight correction as investors bought back blue-chips and picked up laggard stocks, while the softer yen continued to underpin market sentiment. Topping the Topix core 30 list as the biggest percentage gainer was Nissan Motor Co, which rose 2.2 percent, while real estate company Mitsubishi Estate Co ltd gained 1.5 percent and construction machinery maker Komatsu Ltd added 1.3 percent. The benchmark Nikkei rose 17.05 points to 10,029.56, while the broader Topix index was up 0.2 percent at 854.28. The market generally eked out small gains in thin trade, with the Topix trading at about 28 percent of its average daily 90-day volume. The dollar last traded at 82.680 yen, well off an 11-month high of 84.187 plumbed on March 15. "Even if the Nikkei cut below 10,000, domestic institutional investors are not going to lock in profits because they have been net sellers through this rally and foreign buying has pushed it up to this level," said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities. Strategists said last week's dip would entice many investors to pick up stocks as they failed to hop on the rally earlier this year. The Nikkei logged its biggest one-day percentage fall in two months on Friday, welcomed by market players as a much needed correction after the index gained more than 18 percent since January on the back of a run of robust U.S. economic data and liquidity boosting programmes by global central banks. "What we're seeing now is a typical excess liquidity market. The stocks that are gaining here, real estate, financials, iron and steel, these are all 'bubble' stocks that rise as a result of easy monetary policy," said Hirano. Japan's real estate subindex was the best sectoral performer on the main board and gained 0.7 percent and steelmakers rose 1 percent. Nomura added real estate to this week's short candidate list and said it expects the sector to move into a near-term correction phase after it shed more than 6 percent last week. The broker also wrote in a note to clients on Friday that laggard, high-beta sectors will continue to be bought. Among heavily traded shares on Monday were Mitsubishi Materials Corp, which rose 0.7 percent and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, up 0.8 percent after Chile's Codelco, the world's top copper producer, reported a surge in profits and an increase in production last week. Wall Street eked out gains on Friday, led by a rebound in resource shares after Codelco's earnings, while latest data showed new U.S. single-family home sales falling in February, while prices jumped to their highest level in eight months, painting a mixed picture of the U.S. housing market recovery. On Friday, the benchmark Nikkei lost 1.1 percent to 10,011.47, while the broader Topix index declined 1.1 percent to 852.53. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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