Japan’s Nikkei index rose Friday, trimming part of its weekly losses, as the yen’s weakness and Wall Street’s closing boosted investor sentiment.
The Nikkei index ended the day’s trading up 0.17 percent at 27,518.31 points, however, it remained far from the high it recorded early in the session at 27,591.15 points, and the index fell briefly into the red zone following the mid-day break.
The Japanese stock index lost 1.87 percent during the first week of the new Japanese fiscal year. It reached the highest level in almost a month at 28,287.42 points on Tuesday, only to slide following that with global stocks, as a wave of weak US economic data fueled recession fears.
The broader Topix index rose 0.21 percent to 1,965.44 points, trimming its weekly loss to 1.9 percent.
The yen is moving today in a narrow range, following reaching its highest level since March 28, earlier in the week, to move around 131.805 levels once morest the dollar.
The positive performance of the stocks of auto manufacturers, in particular, contributed to the performance of the Nikkei index, as Mazda rose by 1.95 percent and Subaru by 1.33 percent, but Toyota declined by 0.38 percent following the company revealed an updated electric car strategy.
While the share of “Seven & I Holdings”, operator of the “7-Eleven” series in Japan, was the biggest loser, as it plunged 4 percent following the disappointing earnings results.
Most of the Asian indices closed during the day’s trading in the green zone, led by the Korean Kospi Index, which recorded an increase of more than 1 percent.
