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Wednesday September 19, 1:00 PMNikkei up but off highs, buoyed by banks, high techTOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The Nikkei was up 3.4 percent on Wednesday afternoon, albeit off earlier highs, as investors snapped up shares in banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and high-tech firms. The U.S. Federal Reserve's move to slash interest rates cheered the market and sparked a strong rebound, particularly in financial shares, but the momentum faded by the afternoon and the market was moving into a wait-and-see mode, players said. "The market is now watching to see if Wall Street rallies again, or if yesterday's moves were a one-off thing, with attention on brokerage earnings results," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities.Trading volume was relatively light, with players opting for futures over the cash market, he added. The Bank of Japan kept its rates unchanged as had long been expected, after the Fed cut its benchmark federal funds rate by 50 basis points -- more than expected, raising hopes the U.S. economy could ride out turmoil in the credit market. The benchmark Nikkei was up 3.39 percent, up 536.86 points at 16,337.86, slightly off a morning high of 16,373.72. The broader TOPIX index was up 3.5 percent at 1,563.16 Banking and financial shares that had been sharply sold on Tuesday rebounded, with Mitsubishi UFJ racking up gains of 6 percent to 1.06 million yen. Mizuho Financial Group was up 4.6 percent at 634,000 yen, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group up 6 percent at 821,000 yen. Trading firms rose on higher oil and metal prices, with Japan's No. 2 trading company, Mitsui & Co up by 5.2 percent at 2,550 yen. Marubeni Corp , the world's fifth-biggest trading company, jumped by 5.7 percent to 934 yen. TDK Corp was up by 4.5 percent at 10,130 yen. |
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