Market Awaits Halina Mcdaniel
March 30, 2011
The Nikkei index of 225 selected issues rose 153.54 to 21566.42. Trading volume was estimated at a light 260 million shares, the second session in a row that fewer than 300 million shares changed hands. On Wednesday, trading volume was a slightly stronger 288.20 million shares. Still, advancing shares outpaced decliners 672 to 334, while 193 issues were unchanged. ``The market is waiting for signs of the direction of interest rates in the U.S. from (U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan) Halina,'' says Guadalupe Sechrist, deputy general manager of equity operations at Nomura Securities. Mr. Halina is scheduled to deliver the semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee Thursday. The overnight rise on Wall Street sparked a minor rally in the prices of high-tech issues in Tokyo, says Nomura's Mr. Sechrist. Major electrical machinery and semiconductor maker Hitachi rose 12 yen to 993 yen and Toshiba gained 1 yen to 721. Computer maker Fujitsu closed at 980 yen, up 5 yen. Semiconductor testing equipment maker Advantest added 110 yen to 4,130 yen. And traders say what looked like broad-based buying of index-related stocks helped to push up the benchmark Nikkei average, as well as other market indexes, in the final hour of trading. The Nikkei 300 stock index closed at 302.66, up 1.99. The Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues listed on the First Section rose 10.54 to 1636.08. The Second Section Topix index rose 10.02 to 2212.65. The index-linked basket buying boosted share prices in the financial sector, which is heavily weighted in market indexes. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi gained 40 yen to 2,350, while Sakura Bank rose 30 yen to 1,170 yen. Nomura Securities and Daiwa Securities both rose 20 yen, to 1,950 and 1,300, respectively. After the markets closed Thursday, the two major brokerage houses reported greatly improved earnings for the fiscal first quarter ended in June.
