Japan’s Nikkei Rises on Corporate Earnings Outlook, Nintendo Shines

Reuters

12:46 JST, November 8, 2023

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei share average rose on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street’s strong finish overnight and as investors scooped up Nintendo and other stocks with strong earnings outlook.

By 0144 GMT, the Nikkei was up 0.33% at 32,377.53 after opening 0.75% higher. It pared early gains as some investors booked profits from a recent rally.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notching their longest streak of gains in two years, as a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields buoyed megacap growth stocks.

“The Japanese market overall is firm, with investors buying companies which reported strong results,” said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the investment research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.

“But investors continued to sell stocks to lock in profits from sharp gains last week. They were just trying to control the speed of the Nikkei’s gains.”

The Nikkei fell 1.3% on Tuesday after rising more than 6% in four straight sessions of gains.

Among individual stocks, Nintendo jumped 5.7% on Wednesday after the gaming firm raised its operating profit forecast by 11% for the financial year ending March.

Mazda Motor rose 13.28% after the automaker raised its annual operating profit forecast on the back of a weakened yen.

The broader Topix was down 0.55% to 2,319.97 fell 3.33% to drag the index the most, while peer Itochu Corp slipped 1.83%.

Energy sectors were weak as oil prices fell, with refiners losing 4.25% to become the worst performer among the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry sub-indexes. Energy explorers lost 4.03%.

The banking sector lost 3.13%.