Japan Stocks Rise in Early Trading; Yen Gains Ground

Share prices gained moderately on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday morning, and the dollar fell from its early highs against the yen amid heavy intervention by the Bank of Japan to defend its currency.

The 225-issue Nikkei stock average closed the morning session at 34,057.17, up 227.59 or 0.67%. It fell 762.41 on Thursday. A moderate 260 million shares changed hands in morning trading.

A Nomura Securities trader said the Tokyo exchange has not recovered from its continuing weakness during the past two weeks but added that there was no reason to fear a big collapse soon.

The dollar closed the morning session at 149.70 yen, down 0.08 yen from its Thursday close. It opened at 150.35 yen and fluctuated between 149.50 yen and 150.50 yen, as Japan’s central bank aggressively sold dollars in an attempt to defend the yen’s value.

Toru Kanai, a foreign exchange analyst at New Japan Securities Co., said there was still a tremendous demand for dollars on the Tokyo market because of the rapid increase of Japanese firms investing abroad in real estate and securities, he said.