Total 31 issues out of 33 industry category of Topix index advanced, with Retail Trade, Marine Transportation, Services, Transportation Equipment, Nonferrous Metals, Iron & Steel, and Electric Appliances issues being notable gainers.
Stocks were helped by better-than-expected trade data for March from Chinese customs officials. China's exports were down 6.6% in dollar terms in March compared with a year ago, the General Administration of Customs announced on Tuesday. That was considerably better than the expected 14% drop. In another promising sign, China's imports fell 0.9% in March from a year earlier, much better than the expected decline of 9.5%. That appeared to indicate that Chinese factories were loading up on materials to process as their overseas competitors began to shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The modest fall in imports was also striking because China the world's largest importer of oil, iron ore and other raw materials has been the biggest winner from recent plunges in global oil prices.
Shares of Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group advanced 4.14% despite the firm announced on Monday that it expected its Vision Fund to book a loss of 1.8 trillion Japanese yen ($16.73 billion) for fiscal year 2019, citing a deteriorating market environment.
CURRENCY: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 99.169 after touching levels above 99.5 yesterday. The Japanese yen exchanged at 107.69 per dollar in the wake of reinforcing from levels above 108.0 yesterday.
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