Tokyo (awp/afp) – The Tokyo Stock Exchange closed on Thursday with a clear rebound, boosted by the drop in the yen, while the Hong Kong market stumbled sharply against a backdrop of profit-taking after several sessions of surges fueled by stimulus measures from Beijing.
In Tokyo, the flagship Nikkei index ended up 1.97% at 38,552.06 points, while the broader Topix index gained 1.20% to 2,683.71 points, a weakened yen favoring Japanese exporting companies .
The yen fell by 2% on Wednesday against the dollar, after statements by the new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba estimating that his country was not “in an environment conducive to further rate increases” – an accommodating position also expressed by the Governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ).
These statements seem to remove the prospect of further increases in the key rate from the BoJ, which has already raised it twice this year, for the first time since 2007, favoring the rise in the yen and putting the Tokyo stock market under pressure.
On Thursday, the Japanese currency briefly touched a nearly two-month low, at 147.27 yen per dollar, before recovering somewhat, trading at 146.58 yen around 06:00 GMT.
“The yen calmed down” at the end of Asian trade in a wait-and-see market “before the publication of figures on the American job market and in the face of persistent concerns about the Middle East,” observed analysts at IwaiCosmo Securities.
The Japanese currency stabilized against the single European currency, at 161.61 yen per euro.
But the yen is expected to remain weak. “Operators are now banking on the new government maintaining positions favorable to the market (…) this has allayed concerns about Japanese growth,” underlined Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI Asset Management.
The yen is also under pressure due to the large gap between the BoJ, with still low rates, and the American central bank (Fed), which is not expected to immediately continue its rate cuts after positive indicators on the economy in the United States. United.
The stocks of major Japanese exporters largely contributed to boosting the rating on Thursday, such as Toyota (+1.25%) and Panasonic (+2.47%).
The Japanese ready-to-wear group Fast Retailing (Uniqlo) soared (+3.66%) after publishing solid sales figures for September.
Dropout in Hong Kong
Conversely, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange stumbled heavily, investors reaping their profits after gaining more than 20% in a few sessions of strong increases, following recovery measures announced at the end of last week by Beijing.
The Hang Seng index lost 1.30% around 06:20 GMT.
The biggest winners of the rally have been real estate companies, some of which have seen gains of more than 100%. Several of them were hit hard by the correction on Thursday such as Kaisa, Agile and Sunac, which lost between 25 and 30% during trading.
Tech companies, which also enjoyed spectacular gains over the past week, were also in the red. JD.com lost 10% during the session, Alibaba fell by around 7% and Tencent by more than 3%.
Markets in mainland China were closed for the National Day holiday.
For their part, oil prices continued to rise in a feverish market faced with renewed tensions in the Middle East.
Around 06:20 GMT, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea increased by 1.20% to $74.79. A barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 1.34% to $71.04.
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