Japan Stocks gain on vaccination progress

Japan share market finished higher for second straight session on Thursday, 03 June 2021, on following an overnight gain on Wall Street, with wide-ranging sectors including economically sensitive cyclical being notable gainers as an acceleration of the domestic coronavirus vaccine rollout raised hopes for an economic recovery.

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 111.97 points, or 0.39%, to 29,058.11. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange increased 16.37 points, or 0.84%, to 1,958.70.

Trading volume turnover in the 1st section decreased to 1,091 million shares from 1,248 million shares on previous session. Trading value turnover decreased to 2,613.18 billion yen from 2,774.77 billion yen on previous session.

Total 27 sectors of 33 sectors sub-indexes on the Tokyo exchange were higher, with Foods, Fishery, Agriculture & Forestry, Rubber Products, Land Transportation, Pharmaceutical, Pulp & Paper, Transportation Equipment, and Oil & Coal Products sectors being notable gainers, while Marine Transportation, Nonferrous Metals, and Securities & Commodities Futures issues were notable losers.

Shares of railway operators continued upward move on expectations of a rebound in demand with an acceleration of the coronavirus vaccine rollout in Japan. East Japan Railway advanced 2.6% to 8,353 yen and Tobu Railway rose 1.3% to 2,947 yen.

Shares of beer markers also rose on economy reopening bets. Beverage company Kirin Holdings surged 4.2% and Asahi Group Holdings gained 2.3%.

Shares of automakers advanced after data from carmakers showed on Wednesday that combined sales by four major Japanese automakers in the United States rose 42.6% from a year earlier in May. Toyota Motor climbed 2.5% to 9,865 yen, while Honda Motor gained 2.2% to 3,596 yen.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Jibun Services PMI Contracts To 46.5 In May -Japan services sector continued to contract in May, with a services PMI score of 46.5, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Thursday. That's down from 49.5 in April and it moves further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. New business declined at a faster pace in the latest survey period, extending the current sequence of contraction to 16 months. The latest reduction was the quickest for three months and modest. The survey also said its composite index slipped to 48.8 in May from 51.0 in April.

CURRENCY NEWS: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.071 following an earlier low of 89.887. The Japanese yen traded at 109.79 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.5 seen against the greenback earlier this week.

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