Export-related stocks were higher on Thursday in Tokyo as the yen continued to stay weak and as new data was released in the United States that showed retail sales rose 1 percent in November. The Nikkei 225 was 0.8 percent higher to 16,829.20, its highest close in seven months, while the Topix index also ended with a gain of 0.8 percent, to 1,651.85. Meanwhile, the Mothers index of small and mid-caps gained 1.7 percent to close at 1,144.42.
The gains in US sales helped the electronics sector. While Pioneer dropped 1.8 percent to ¥1,633 on a downgrade from “buy” to “neutral” from Nomura Securities, others in the sector benefited from the new sales numbers. Matsushita Electric Industrial was 0.6 percent higher to ¥3,345. Canon gained 1.7 percent to ¥6,650. Sony added 1.8 percent, helped along by its insistence that it would meet its target of shipping 3 million PlayStation 3 game consoles globally by the end of the month and that 6 million units will be shipped by the end of March.
In the tobacco sector, no news was not necessarily good news for investors. There was nothing new on a possible bid by Japan Tobacco for UK tobacco company Gallaher. This lack of fresh information sent Japan Tobacco 2.4 percent lower to ¥579,000 just a day after reaching its highest share price ever.