Tokyo shares end near 8-week high, track Wall Street gains on virus drug hopes

SYDNEY, April 30 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks scaled a near
eight-week closing high on Thursday, tracking Wall Street's
overnight rally on promising early trial results of an
experimental COVID-19 treatment, as well as on solid tech
earnings and a surge in oil prices.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 advanced 2.6% to
20,193.69, its highest closing level since March 9, with trading
volume on the main board hitting a one-month peak of 3.06
trillion yen ($28.8 billion).
The Nikkei volatility index .JNIV , considered a fear gauge
based on option pricing, dropped as much as 11.9% to an
eight-week low of 29.4, reflecting a decline in investor
anxiety.
The broader Topix .TOPX gained 1.0% to 1,464.03, also its
highest close since March 6, with more than two-thirds of the 33
sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo exchange finishing higher.
Highly cyclical mining .IMING.T , iron and steel .ISTEL.T
and securities .ISECU.T were the top three performing sector
subindexes on the main bourse.
U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday on hopes for a COVID-19
treatment as the top U.S. infectious disease official said a
government study found that Gilead Sciences' GILD.O antiviral,
remdesivir, had a clear effect in cutting the time patients need
to recover. Big tech companies provided the biggest lift to the S&P 500
.SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC , up 2.7% and 3.6% respectively,
and pushed all three major Wall Street indexes closer to their
all-time highs reached in February. As some countries have started easing their coronavirus
lockdown and moving toward reopening economies, domestic media
reported the Japanese government is planning to extend the state
of emergency by about a month for the entire country.
The news weighed on the country's top theme park operator
Oriental Land Co Ltd 4661.T , which has already announced
temporary closure of Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea at least
until mid-May. Oriental Land dropped 4.2%, partly due to
disappointing earnings results for the year ended in March.
Tokyo-listed oil and gas companies Inpex Corp 1605.T
jumped 5.1% and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd 1662.T
climbed 2.3%, as oil prices surged more than 10% on Thursday
after U.S. crude stockpiles grew less than expected. O/R
The Nikkei's heavyweight SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T added
0.5% after the tech conglomerate predicted a loss of around 700
billion yen for the year to March 2021 on the portion of its
WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, extending the
group's expected net loss to 900 billion yen. Yamazaki Baking Co Ltd 2212.T dived 16.3% after the
company's operating profit for the January-March quarter missed
analyst estimates, as the demand for sweet buns was hurt by the
work-from-home trend due to the coronavirus outbreak.
NTT Docomo Inc 9437.T shed 4.5% after the mobile operator
reported a 10.9% decline in net profit for the year ended in
March, also hit by the stay-at-home trend due to the epidemic.
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