TOKYO: Japanese stocks shook higher Monday morning, as investors awaited the outcome of the European Union’s emergency meeting on the Greek crisis. With reports saying Athens had submitted a raft of planned reforms in exchange for fiscal aid, Japan’s Nikkei Average NIK, +0.80% moved from a flat open to sit 0.7% higher after about half an hour of trade, with the Topix I0000, +0.68% up 0.6%. While the dollar USDJPY, +0.07% had fallen to ¥122.81 after spending most of the previous week above ¥123, apparent optimism over a solution to the Greek situation helped many of the globally exposed blue chips move solidly higher. Shares of Sony Corp. 6758, +2.11% SNE, -1.72% rallied 2.9%, Komatsu Ltd. 6301, +2.09% KMTUF, +1.56% and Sharp Corp. 6753, +0.60% SHCAF, +2.16% rose 1.8% each, and Konica Minolta Inc. 7731, +1.75% KNCAY, +1.34% jumped 4.4%, coinciding with the company’s purchase of unlisted SymQuest Group. Stock in Gungho Online Entertainment Inc. 3765, +3.40% GUNGF, -2.28% traded 2.6% higher as the Nikkei reported the company planned to retire 8% of its stock float, while Tokyo Electron Ltd. 8035, -0.99% TOELF, +1.68% went the other way, losing 0.4% after news its planned merger with Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, -0.60% of the U.S. had failed to win regulatory approval. Banks were also broadly higher (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. 8306, +2.97% MTU, +0.43% up 2.5%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. 8316, +2.40% SMFG, -1.06% up 1.7%, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. 8411, +2.10% MFG, -0.48% up 0.9%), also likely bolstered by hope for a Greek deal. Over in the auto-maker space, Toyota Motor Corp. 7203, +0.23% TM, -0.34% sat fractionally lower, while Honda Motor Co. 7267, +1.42% HMC, -0.15% added 0.9%, even after confirming that the death of a California motorist was due to the rupture of a faulty Takata Corp. 7312, -0.36% TKTDY, +2.70% airbag. Takata stock lost 0.4%. Among other movers, Asahi Kasei Corp. 3407, +1.89% added 1.9% after a Nikkei news report said the electronics-and-chemical company would report “a roughly 20% rise” for its April-June operating profit, compared to a year earlier. Stock in ANA Holdings Inc. 9202, +2.38% ALNPF, +1.36% improved by 1.6%, with a separate Nikkei report quoting an executive at the airline as saying there would be no stock offerings to raise capital in the next year or two.
