Tokyo’s markets were higher as brokerages gained on the news that Citigroup (NYSE: C) has said it will buy out minority shareholders in Nikko Cordial (TYO: 8603; SGX: N06).
Citigroup already owns 68 percent of the brokerage.
The Nikkei 225 added 0.9 percent to 17,199.89, while the Topix index gained 1.48 percent to 1,664.01 and the Mothers market jumped 5.03 percent to 794.35.
The announcement from Citigroup sent Nikko’s shares up by the daily limit of 13.7 percent to ¥1,662.
Elsewhere in the sector, Nomura Holdings (TYO: 8604; NYSE: NMR; SGX: N33) was 4 percent higher to ¥3,090 while Daiwa Securities (TYO: 8601) gained 5.8 percent to ¥1,178.
Banks were also higher.
Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) was up 4 percent to ¥1,158 and Mizuho added 4.5 percent to ¥691,000.
Elsewhere, steel maker JFE (TYO: 5411) was 3.1 percent higher to ¥8,370 on the announcement that it will raise prices on steel plate by 15 percent as well as on the news that it will partner with Toshiba (TYO: 6502; LSE: TOS) to design and manufacture small and medium-sized steam turbines for power plants.
Toshiba gained 2.4 percent to ¥1,091 on the news.
In the electronics sector, Nintendo (TYO: 7974; NAS: NTDOY; FWB: NTO) added 2.7 percent to ¥1,700 but Matsushita Electric Industrial (TYO: 6752) dropped 2.5 percent to ¥2,125 after production at one of its battery factories was shut down due to a fire.