Japan Nikkei gains on offshore lead, weaker yen

Headline indices of the Japan share market advanced on Friday, 13 July 2018, as investors continued value buying on tracking gains on Wall Street overnight and yen depreciation to 112.00 zone, a six-month low, against the dollar. Lack of an escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions also boosted investor sentiment. Among TSE33 issues, 31 issues inclined, while 2 declined, with shares of Services, Textiles & Apparels, Precision Instruments, Glass & Ceramics Products, Electric Appliances, Nonferrous Metals, Chemicals, and Information & Communication issues being notable gainers. Around late afternoon, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index inclined 2.1%, or 454.63 points, to 22,642.59. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, rose 1.14%, or 19.44 points, to 1,729.12.

Shares of export-related players gained, thanks to yen depreciation against greenback. A weaker yen tends to help Japanese exporters' profits made abroad when repatriated. Advantest Corp and TDK Corp were up in the range of 1%-2%.

Shares of Fast Retailing jumped after operator of Uniqlo clothing stores reported 37% jump in its third-quarter operating profit to a record 68.4 billion yen thanks to brisk sales at its overseas Uniqlo stores.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Japanese yen depreciated against U.S. dollar in Tokyo on Friday. The dollar strengthened against the yen to trade at 112.64, earlier touching a six-month high overnight.

OFFSHORE MARKET: US stock market rebounded to close higher on Thursday, partly due to optimism about the upcoming earnings season. Easing trade concerns also contributed to the rally. The tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 107.30 points or 1.4% to a new record closing high of 7,823.92, the Dow jumped 224.74 points or 0.9% to 24,924.89, and the S&P 500 surged up 24.27 points or 0.9% to 2,798.29.

The major European markets also moved back to the upside on Thursday. The French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.8% and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.6%.

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