Japan stocks continue to surge on vaccine-fuelled recovery hopes

By Stanley White
TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks, which hit a
30-year high in the previous session, extended their rally on
Tuesday as progress in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines
boosted expectations that the global economy is poised for a
strong recovery.
The Nikkei 225 Index .N225 rose 1.18% to 30,439.54 by
01:44 GMT as financials and real estate shares surged. At one
point the Nikkei rose to 30,487.65, the highest since August
1990.
The broader Topix .TOPX rose 0.64% to 1,966,45 and at one
point hit its highest since June 1991.
Japanese stocks have followed global equity markets higher
in a dizzying bull run as money flows to riskier assets in
anticipation of a rapid improvement in economic growth and
corporate profits, but some analysts worry that recent gains are
unsustainable.
"There are fundamental reasons supporting stocks, but people
have been worried about the speed of the rally since the Nikkei
reached 29,000," said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief fund manager at
Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management.
"However, it just does not seem to show signs of stopping."
Recent corporate earnings have been favourable, and Japan is
expected to start coronavirus vaccinations this week.
In addition, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on
Tuesday the recent stock rally reflected the global outlook,
brushing aside views its monetary policy was fuelling a bubble.
The stocks that gained the most among the top 30 core Topix
names were Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc 8316.T up
4.04%, followed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc 8306.T ,
which gained 4.64%.
The underperformers among the Topix 30 were Toyota Motor
Corp 7203.T , down 1.15%, followed by Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd
4568.T , which lost 0.74%.
There were 137 advancers on the Nikkei index against 87
decliners.
The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's
main board .TOPX was 0.53 billion, compared to the average of
1.27 billion in the past 30 days.