TOKYO: Tokyo stocks jumped 2.47 percent Thursday after the US Federal Reserve kept its monetary easing stance intact, while investors kept a close eye on Japanese corporate earnings reports.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 337.45 points at 14,005.77, while the Topix index of all first-section shares gained 2.80 percent, or 31.69 points, to 1,163.39.
US data on July private-sector jobs and second-quarter gross domestic product came in above forecasts, helping ease concerns over the state of the world's largest economy.
Japan Inc.'s quarterly results have so far been mixed but a weaker yen helped boost the bottom lines of many export-oriented firms.
"While earnings reports show the same kind of inconsistency we've seen to this point, the market as a whole has settled since sharp selloffs ended six weeks ago," Shinkin Asset Management fund manager Naoki Fujiwara told Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the Nikkei falling off a five-year high reached in late May.
On currency markets, the dollar was at 98.50 yen in afternoon Asian trade, up from 97.92 yen in New York Wednesday afternoon, reversing earlier loss after the Fed left unchanged its ultra-loose monetary policy, which tends to weigh on the greenback.
The dollar bounced back against the yen in late Asia as the improved economic outlook gave investors confidence to pick up higher yielding assets, while China's official purchasing managers index (PMI) showed a surprise rise in July.
The index hit 50.3 last month from 50.1 in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That compares with a median forecast of 49.8 in a survey of 11 economists by Dow Jones Newswires.
A reading below 50 indicates contraction, while anything above signals expansion.
In stock trading, Japan Airlines was up 3.65 percent at 5,390 yen, despite a nearly 32 percent plunge in its first quarter net profit released Wednesday.
Nintendo was up 5.07 percent at 13,050 yen after it reported it swung to a net profit in the three months to June, while Panasonic jumped 6.81 percent to 909 yen after it said its bottom line soared, thanks to cost cutting efforts, a weaker yen and a pension scheme accounting change.
Sharp added 1.73 percent at 411 yen, after surging as much as 6.1 percent earlier in the session following reports that it planned to raise more capital and would report upbeat three-month earnings later in the day.
Sony, which lifted its annual sales forecast after the market closed, rose 1.74 percent to 2,104 yen. (AFP)
