MARKETSNikkei eyes 5-day run, best week in eight months

29 minutes ago

http://www.ft.com/intl/fastft/361661

It has been a good week to be long Japanese equities, with the Nikkei 225 on track for its best week in more than eight months.

The Nikkei 225 is up 0.2 per cent in morning trade at 20,632.7, putting the average on track for a fifth consecutive day of gains. This would be the longest winning streak since a near-record 12-day run that ended on June 1, and also the equal second-longest run this year, with a previous five-day streak in late February, writes Peter Wells.

While this morning's meagre advance means a five-day run is far from secure, the Japanese market had performed strongly in the first part of the week, with gains of 1.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent on Monday and Tuesday.

That has the Japanese benchmark up 4.3 per cent so far this week, which is potentially the best weekly performance since the final week of October last year, when shares gained 7.3 per cent. Around these levels, the weekly gain sits as the 13th-best over the past five years.

Japan's broader Topix index is down 0.1 per cent on Friday, but has risen for the previous five sessions in a row. It is still up 4.8 per cent this week, which is also its best since the final week of October.

Compared to other major benchmarks around the region, only the Shenzhen Composite's 6.7 per cent gain (to the Thursday close) is better than the two Japanese measures.