Japanese Stocks Slip After Impressive Gains In Last Session

The Japanese stock market slipped today amid rising Covid-19 cases after witnessing a good recovery in last session. The stocks had soared with benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumping more than 2% on good bargain buying at near six week low. Some selling emerged in the index leading counters today on lack of cues from Wall Street overnight and the rapid spread of the coronavirus omicron variant. Japan has reported more than 20,000 new daily cases for the fourth straight day. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed down 0.27% at 28257 today, giving up bulk of the gains in second half of the session after hitting above 28600 mark.

The Bank of Japan left its key short-term interest rate unchanged at -0.1% and that for 10-year bond yields around 0% during its January meeting, by an 8-1 vote today. For the time being, the Bank said it will closely monitor the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID19) and will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if necessary and expects short- and long-term policy interest rates to remain at their present or lower levels. Meanwhile, economic cues were upbeat, pushing up the index in early hours of trade. Japan's industrial production gained 7.0% on month in November, accelerating sharply from a 1.8% rise in the previous month. This marked the second straight month of increase in industrial output and the strongest growth on record, with contribution from the production of motor vehicles leading the way as it benefited from a recovery in global parts supply, followed by that from plastic products and iron, steel and non-ferrous metals. On a yearly basis, industrial output soared 5.1% in November, the first yearly increase in the three months, after a 4.1% drop in October.

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