Tokyo stocks close higher for 12th day in a row

Blue-chip Japanese exporters were higher, with Sony gaining 1.73 per cent and Canon advancing 0.84 per cent

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed modestly higher Wednesday, its 12th straight day of gains, pushing the benchmark index to a fresh two-decade high. The Nikkei 225 ticked up 0.13 per cent or 26.93 points, to close at 21,363.05, while the broader Topix index added 0.07 per cent, or 1.27 points, to sit at 1,724.64.

Tokyo's rise came after fresh records on Wall Street with the Dow and S&P 500 closing at new all-time highs following solid results from big firms including Johnson & Johnson and Goldman Sachs.

"We cannot shrug off the feeling that stocks have been bought too much over a short period of time. This pace will be corrected sometime," said equity market strategist Juichi Wako at Nomura Securities.



"But the advance this far stems from improving corporate earnings, which has made stock prices relatively cheap," he told AFP. "Even if the market adjusts the speed, it will likely test a higher level" soon, he said.

Investors were also watching the Chinese communist party's twice-a-decade congress which opened Wednesday and a set of Chinese data later this week, Okasan Online Securities strategist Yoshihiro Ito said in a commentary.

China-watchers are hoping the leadership provides some idea about future policy, particularly in tackling the country's titanic debt mountain and possible further liberalisation.



Blue-chip Japanese exporters were higher, with Sony gaining 1.73 per cent to 4,226 yen and Canon advancing 0.84 per cent to 4,035 yen.
Scandal-hit Kobe Steel dropped 3.04 per cent to 827 yen.

On Tuesday, the firm said it had received a request from the US Department of Justice for information linked to the snowballing quality scandal that has battered its reputation and share price.

Kansai Electric was down 1.70 percent at 1,560.5 yen after a report on Tuesday that it will decommission two of its old nuclear reactors.
The company said it has not yet made a final decision on whether to mothball the two reactors.

Mitsubishi Motors fell 1.31 per cent to 898 yen after it unveiled its medium-term management plan in which they said they would aim for a 30-percent rise in revenue and annual vehicle sales. In forex trading, the dollar fetched 112.30 yen, against 112.20 yen in New York.