Tokyo equities markets were higher on Thursday even though the non-ferrous metals sector declined by 0.4 percent after commodities prices fell in the overnight hours. The Nikkei 225 added 0.6 percent to 16,473.36, while the Topix index gained 0.5 percent to 1,622.77.
The recent advances in the consumer finance sector seemed to be slowing down. Takefuji remained steady at ¥4,770 and Credit Saison was 0.9 percent higher to ¥4,300. Only Aiful managed a significant gain, adding 4.1 percent to ¥3,850.
Two companies made their trading debuts on the session, but both IPOs suffered losses on their first day. Independent investment research business Japaninvest debuted with an IPO price fo ¥150,000 but closed down to ¥135,000. Meanwhile, internet service provider Nifty’s IPO price was ¥210,000; it ended the session at ¥203,000.
In the telecommunications sector, results were mixed. KDDI added 0.3 percent to ¥784,000, but Softbank dropped 0.4 percent to ¥3,475 and NTT DoCoMo fell 1.1 percent to ¥180,000 on the news that it has lost subscribers for the first time.
Among companies that deal in non-ferrous metals, Toho Zinc dropped 0.4 percent to ¥979, while Sumitomo Metal Mining fell 0.7 percent to ¥1,524 and Mitsui Mining $ Smelting was 1.3 percent lower to ¥551.