Nikkei ends at near 30-year high on recovery hopes, upbeat machinery data

TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese shares closed at a near
30-year high on Wednesday, as Britain's COVID-19 vaccine rollout
and seeming progress over a U.S. stimulus deal boosted hopes of
a swift global economic recovery, while upbeat domestic
machinery data also buoyed sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 rose 1.33% to
26,817.94, its highest closing since April 17, 1991. The broader
Topix .TOPX rose 1.17% to 1,779.42.
SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T shares did most of the
uplifting in the afternoon trade, jumping as much as 7% on a
Bloomberg News report that the conglomerate was considering
buying back shares to boost Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi
Son's stake. Overnight, the S&P and Nasdaq indexes notched record highs.
.N
Britain on Tuesday became the first Western nation to begin
a wide vaccination campaign, and on encouraging COVID-19 vaccine
news from Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N and Pfizer Inc PFE.N .
Underpinning market sentiment further, data showed Japan's
core machinery orders rebounded sharply in October from the
previous month's drop. The 17.1% jump was the largest month-on-month rise since
comparable data became available in 2005, and far exceeded
economists' forecast of 2.8% in a Reuters poll.
"The strong data could lead to overall firmness in the
manufacturing industry, as core machinery orders are leading
indicators for capital spending," said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief
fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co,
adding that cyclical machinery and material sectors
outperformed.
Machinery companies Komatsu 6301.T , SMC Corp 6273.T and
Fanuc Corp 6954.T climbed between 2.27% and 2.98%.
Other sectors on the main bourse followed suit, with Paper
and pulp .IPAPR.T and textiles .ITXTL.T rose 2.43% and
1.56%, respectively.
Semiconductors tracked their U.S. peers higher. Advantest
Corp 6857.T rose nearly 1.3%, while SUMCO 3436.T spiked
5.41%
Tokyo Dome Corp 9681.T slipped 4.4%, after property
developer Mitsui Fudosan 8801.T said Oasis Management was
willing to tender shares of the ballpark operator to it.
The Mothers Index .MTHR of start-up firm shares bucked the
overall trend to decline 1.39%.