Nikkei 225 index surged almost 23% in 2012
Baku, December 29 (AZERTAC). Tokyo shares on Friday closed at their highest point since last year's quake-tsunami, ending 2012 up almost 23 percent on-year as Japan's new government pledges to turn around the long-suffering economy.
The Nikkei ended the last trading day of the year up 0.70 percent, or 72.20 points, closing at 10,395.18, its best finish since the March 11 disaster.
And the 22.9 percent rise over the past 12 months was the strongest annual return for the Nikkei since 2005, although the closely-followed index remains a shadow of its former self.
The Nikkei peaked at almost 39,000 in the last days of 1989 before Japan's asset bubble popped, dealing a huge blow to the economy and sending the index plunging over the next two decades.
It lost about 17 percent last year when Japan was hammered by the twin natural disasters and subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima, the worst atomic accident in a generation.
Overseas investors have been piling into the Tokyo market on the back of hopes that the new conservative government headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make good on promises to revive Japan's limp economy.
Investors have bid up Japanese stocks because the market was undervalued, said Seiichi Suzuki, a strategist at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
On Friday, Tokyo's broader Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 0.67 percent, or 5.71 points, to 859.80, to finish the year up 18 percent.
Producers, already battling fierce overseas competition and a global slowdown, suffered as the strong currency made their products pricier overseas while shrinking the value of repatriated income.
It did, however, make foreign acquisitions relatively cheaper with Japanese firms going on a big shopping spree this year, scooping up about $110 billion worth of overseas assets, according to data provider Dealogic.
Fast Retailing, operator of cheap chic fashion chain Uniqlo, hit the year's highest price of 21,840 yen a share, while factory automation giant Fanuc also notched up a year-high of 15,920 yen, up 35 percent.
Weitere News der Rubrik
