Tokyo Stocks Up With All Eyes On Trump Speech

TOKYO, , (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2017 ) - Tokyo's benchmark index rose Tuesday morning after four losing sessions, with all eyes on US President Donald Trump's congressional address later in the day.

The rally tracked another gain for the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average which crept up to close at a 12th consecutive all-time high on Monday. Investors have rejoiced in Trump's promises of new tax cuts and stimulus spending, but concrete details have yet to materialise.

Trump, however, hinted he would make a "big" announcement on infrastructure policy during an address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. "Those who wanted to hedge risks ahead of Trump's speech seem largely done with their moves," said Toshihiko Matsuno, a senior strategist at SMBC Friend Securities.

"His speech could address infrastructure and military businesses, which will support related company stocks," he told Bloomberg news. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.69 percent, or 131.27 points, to sit at 19,238.74 by the lunch break while the Topix index of all first-section issues rose 0.

92 percent, or 14.09 points, to 1,548.09.

In Currency markets, the Dollar held up on expectations for higher US interest rates, buying 112.56 Yen on Tuesday, slightly off 112.70 yen in New York but still above levels earlier Monday in Asia.

Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Fed, repeated his view that interest rates should go up "sooner rather than later", Bloomberg reported, hinting at a possible March hike. "What Kaplan said may have been something general but the timing of it made people tune into it," Matsuno said.

Toyota shares rose 0.71 percent to 6,452 yen and Nissan gained 1.13 percent to end the morning at 1,117.5 yen. Takata was up 0.72 percent to 557 yen after the airbag maker pleaded guilty to fraud and will pay a billion-dollar fine to settle suits over the defective safety devices.

Details of the settlement were announced previously. Toshiba fell 2.91 percent to 213.5 yen after the Mainichi newspaper reported Tuesday that the loss-hit conglomerate aims to raise up to 2.5 trillion yen ($22 billion) by selling all of its prized microchip business.