TOKYO, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Japan’s Nikkei closed at a more than 31-year high on Tuesday, led by cyclical stocks tracking overnight Wall Street gains, while progress in domestic vaccine rollouts raised hopes for an economic reopening.
The Nikkei share average ended up 0.73% at 30,670.10, its highest since August 1990. The broader Topix jumped 1.01% to 2,118.87.
“The difference between today and yesterday is that today’s gain is led by a rebound of U.S. stocks,” said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.
“When economically sensitive (cyclical) stocks lead the U.S. market, that works favourably to the Japanese market because Japan has no big growth shares equivalent to GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebaook and Amazon), so the market can’t take advantage of their gains.”
Overnight, the S&P 500 ended a five-day losing streak led by value shares that are set to benefit most from a recovering economy.
Insurance sector led gains among the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 subindexes, jumping 3.67%, followed by shippers , which gained 2.14%.
Refiners gained 2.05% after oil prices rose to six-week highs.
Sentiment was also boosted by hopes for an economic reopening as Japan is on track to reach the vaccination levels of the United States and Europe. The government said on Tuesday more than 50% of Japan's population have been fully vaccinated.
Technology heavyweights SoftBank Group and Advantest tracked an overnight lower of the Nasdaq , falling 0.49% and 0.18%, respectively.
Tokio Marine Holdings, up 6.2%, was the best performer on the Nikkei, followed by Showa Denko, which jumped 6.19 % and Z Holdings Corp, rising 5.24%.
Konami Holdings fell 2.79 %, making it the worst performer on the Nikkei, followed by Pacific Metals, losing 2.72 % and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings , which fell 2.27%.
Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Rashmi Aich
Source: Reuters