Optimism Pushes Tokyo Stocks to 3rd Record Close

Share prices rose to a record close for the third consecutive day Wednesday on continued optimism at the start of a new imperial era.

The Nikkei index rose 136.94, or 0.44%, to 31,143.45. It surged 328.12 to the previous record close of 31,006.51 on Tuesday.

The Nikkei has already put on 933.91 points, or 3.09%, this week.

“At the moment there is no doubt the market is very infused with the new era and that all sorts of stocks are going up,” said Michael Cutbill, a fund manager at Bank of Tokyo Touche Remnant Asset Management Ltd.

“We’ve got a major bull market on hand,” he said.

Emperor Hirohito died Saturday, and the new imperial era began the next day.

Volume was a strong 1.4 billion shares against 1.5 billion the day before, and buying was broad-based, with winners outpacing losers 9 to 5.

Securities house, pharmaceutical, bank, non-life insurance, railway and bus, rubber, service, electrical, retail and mining shares led the gains.

Oil, gas, credit and lease, rolling stock, real estate, communications, electric power, shipping, construction and non-ferrous metal stock led the declines.

“People are thinking brokers will come out with new sales campaigns for the new era,” said Jeff Bahrenburg, a market strategist at Merrill Lynch Japan Inc.

“That will give the market, over the next month, an upward bias of about 10%,” he said.

The sudden surge brought in some profit takers this morning, bringing the index down 102.63 to the day’s low of 30,903.88.