2018-11-08
Japan's Nikkei rose on Thursday after a rally on Wall Street after the US midterm elections did not bring much surprises, while Toshiba jumped after the company announced cost cuts and a major buyback.
 
The Nikkei rose 1.8 percent to a two-and-a-half-week closing high of 22486.92 points.
 
The results of the US midterm elections were in line with market expectations, with Democrats winning a majority in the House of Representatives while Republicans boosted their majority in the Senate.
 
Analysts said investors were buying back stocks as they were optimistic that US President Donald Trump's corporate growth support measures would continue.
 
All sector indices rose with the exception of a single sub-index on the broader TOPIX index.
 
Topix added 1.7 percent to 1,681.25 points. A total of 1,733 shares advanced, while 324 declined.
 
Toshiba Corp jumped 13 percent to its highest level in two years, its biggest daily increase since July 2017 after the company said it was liquefying the British nuclear power unit and selling the LNG sector in the United States.
 
The company has announced a plan to buy back up to 40 percent of its shares.
 
Sorogha rose 16 percent after Reuters said the bank was expected to suffer a net loss of 50 billion yen ($ 440.02 million) in the first half of the year, compared to a preliminary forecast of a 12 billion yen loss, a source familiar with the report said.
 
Traders said individual investors who had sold the stock when they initially speculated that the bank would take a loss began to cover their positions in the city after they got a measure of the size of the loss.