Nikkei Average Rewrites Record Intraday High

Tokyo, May 14 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average continued rising to rewrite its record intraday high Thursday morning. The index of 225 selected issues listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s top-tier Prime section started the day’s session with a marginal loss. But it soon swung to the plus side and climbed to as high as 63,799.32, up 527.21 points, or 0.83 pct, from Wednesday’s closing, exceeding its previous intraday high of 63,385.04 marked Monday. The Nikkei finished the morning at 63,448.87, up 176.76 points, or 0.28 pct. Market players rushed to buy artificial intelligence-related issues, following an advance of U.S. high-tech stocks Wednesday. After setting the new intraday high, the Nikkei lost part of the gain as investors turned cautious over the market’s overheating. Declining stocks outnumbered risers on the Prime section in the morning. The broader TOPIX index mostly stayed in negative territory and ended the morning session down 16.87 points, or 0.43 pct, at 3,902.61. “Many companies that announced earnings results yesterday showed cautious projections going forward, so trading was mixed on the Tokyo market in the morning session today,” an official of a major securities company said. Meanwhile, the yield on the most recent issue of 10-year Japanese government bonds, considered to be the benchmark long-term interest rate in Japan, rose to 2.605 pct, the highest level in 29 years, in interdealer bond trading in Tokyo on Thursday morning. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]