Nikkei Jumps over 1,000 Points in Morning on Global Bailout Steps

Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--The key Nikkei average jumped over 1,000 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday morning as worldwide emergency measures to tackle the financial crisis helped mend investors' shattered confidence.

The 225-issue Nikkei soared 1,079.13 points, or 13.0 pct, from
Friday to end the morning session at 9,355.56, following seven consecutive
sessions of fall. On Friday, the key market gauge dived 881.06 points, or
9.6 pct, which was its third biggest single-day percentage loss ever.
Japan's financial markets were closed Monday for a national
holiday.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was up 106.61 points,
or 12.7 pct, at 947.47, after plunging 64.25 points the previous market day.
Tokyo stocks roared back tracking Monday's powerful rallies on
European and U.S. markets, as investors welcomed the pledge in the "Plan of
Action" issued in Washington Friday by the Group of Seven top finance
officials to "take decisive action and use all available tools" to prevent
systemically important financial institutions from failing.
As Britain, France and Germany swiftly compiled specific actions to
shore up debilitated financial institutions and loosen up the tight credit
markets, "investor jitters subsided across the globe," Hiroichi Nishi,
equity general manager at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc., said.
The United States is also seen announcing later Tuesday plans to
recapitalize financial institutions with public money, a prospect that led
to the biggest-ever single-day point gain in the U.S. Dow Jones industrial
average overnight.
The series of positive developments worldwide "prompted players
here to buy back a wide range of shares" after the Nikkei gave up a whopping
3,091 points in its seven-day losing streak through Friday, Nishi said.

A total of 1,586 issues rose on the TSE's first section in the
morning, while only 22 fell and four remained unchanged.
Half-day volume came to 1,134 million shares.
On top of the worldwide commitments to quell the financial turmoil,
the yen's retreat against the dollar and the euro also helped soothe
investors' anxiety, brokers said.
"The market appears to be restoring calm after the recent
extraordinary falls and excessive deterioration in investor sentiment,"
Kazuhiro Takahashi, equity general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co.,
said.
Still, in order for the Nikkei average to regain the
psychologically important 10,000 mark, more incentives are required, namely,
the U.S. government's actual public injection into financial firms and drops
in short-term money market rates to ease global credit market strains, he
said.
The market's further rise, however, is doubtful because the series
of financial stabilization measures by the major countries are unlikely to
stop the worsening of their economic fundamentals, Takahashi pointed out.

Among international blue chips, Sony scored its daily limit gain,
while Toyota leaped 15.2 pct.
Mizuho Financial Group stayed bid-only, while peers Mitsubishi UFJ
and Sumitomo Mitsui scored hefty gains.
Retailers Aeon and Daiei remained bid-only.
Real estate developer Pacific Holdings, meanwhile, suffered a
substantial drop.
Apparel maker Onward Holdings plunged 10.8 pct after the company
last week revised down its earnings projections for the year to next
February.