Japan Nikkei rebounds on bargain hunting

Japanese share market finished session higher on Monday, 31 October 2022, recouping some of the losses in the previous two sessions, as investors took heart from gains on Wall Street on Friday following strong earnings by U.S. firms including Apple Inc while a weak yen lifted exporters.

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average index advanced 482.26 points, or 1.78%, to 27,587.46. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange added 30.38 points, or 1.6%, to 1,929.43.

Total 31 of 33 TOPIX sectorial indices advanced, with Electric Appliances (up 2.8%), Machinery (up 2.3%), Marine Transportation (up 2.2%), Rubber Products (up 2%), and Transportation Equipment (up 1.9%) issues being notable gainers.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Alps Electric Co, which rose 15.5%. JTEKT Corp added 10.9% and Toyota Tsusho Corp was up 8.1%.Biggest losers included Pacific Metals Co, which lost 8.5%. NGK Insulators declined 6.7% and TOTO shed 5%.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan's factory output fell a seasonally adjusted 1.6% in September from a month earlier, as manufacturers took a hit from rising costs for raw materials and the global economic slowdown, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) data showed on Monday. That marked the first month-on-month fall in four months in industrial production and followed a 2.7% rise in August. METI expected that output to fall another 0.4% in October and rise 0.8% in November.

Separate METI data showed retail sales rose 4.5% year-on-year at 12.591 trillion yen in September, extending a rebound since March when the government ended domestic COVID-19 containment measures. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales climbed 1.1%, slowing from 1.1% in the previous month. For the third quarter of 2022, retail sales gained 3.6% on year and 1.3% on quarter, coming in at 38.140 trillion yen.

CURRENCY NEWS: The yen depreciated to upper 147 level against greenback on Monday, after the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) decision to keep ultra-low interest rates on Friday, and BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's still-dovish comments in the face of rising interest rates elsewhere.

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