Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average briefly topped 30,000 yen for the first time since August 1990. The gauge rose as much as 1.6 per cent on Monday, amid signs of economic recovery is intact at home and hopes of progression in U.S. stimulus talks.
The brief breach of the 30,000 shows that all sorts of investors are jumping in to buy Japanese equities with a totally bullish view, said Shoji Hirakawa, chief global strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co.
That view was affirmed when Japan announced its GDP grew an annualized 12.7 per cent from the prior quarter. Exports continued to rebound and government stimulus fueled consumer spending despite the Coronavirus.
Like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted measure. The two highest-weighted stocks, Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co. and SoftBank Group Corp., make up almost 19% of the gauge. Both of those stocks have surged in the past year, benefiting from the pandemic and the latter from Masayoshi Son’s record-breaking buybacks.