INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei rallied on Tuesday to its highest close since Feb
1, led by insurers thanks to rising US Treasury yields, though electronic suppliers underperformed as traders weighted the impact of new US
tariffs on Chinese goods.
Hopes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will win a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election on Thursday
helped push up the Nikkei share average.
The index opened lower but ended 1.4 per cent higher - its biggest one-day gain in five weeks - at
23,420.54.
The broader Topix closed at 1,759.88 after climbing 1.8 per cent, its biggest daily per centage gain in six months.
Japanese
markets were closed for a holiday on Monday.
US President Donald Trump imposed 10 per cent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports
on Monday, but spared smart watches from Apple and Fitbit and other consumer products such as bicycle helmets and baby car seats.
The move
was expected, so even though the market opened down, investors seemed to have quickly priced in the news and looked to domestic events.
Abe,
who returned to office in December 2012 pledging to bolster defences and reboot the economy, is widely expected to defeat his rival, former
defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, for leadership of the LDP.
Expectations of an Abe victory "are raising hopes that Japan's political
stability will continue," said Takatoshi Itoshima, a strategist at Pictet Asset Management.
Japanese shares rose broadly, with all of the
Topix's 33 subsectors in positive territory.
Insurers who hunt for higher yielding products were among big winners after US Treasury
yields soared on Monday on hopes the US central bank could raise interest rates twice more this year
Dai-ichi Life Holdings jumped 4.2 per cent and MSAD Insurance soared 4 per cent.
Electronic suppliers underperformed after Apple Inc said
Trump's tariff decision could hit a "wide range" of its products.
While Trump will spare Apple's Watch and other consumer gadgets from
the latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods, parts for the computer servers and networking gear that power "cloud" data centres and
Internet-based services now face a levy, as do some of the parts for the machines used to make semiconductors.
Murata Manufacturing shed 1.4
per cent, Alps Electric tumbled 2.1 per cent and Kyocera Corp declined 0.9 per cent.
Elsewhere Start Today Co was volatile, falling as much
as 4.7 per cent and rising 0.8 per cent before ending 2.4 per cent lower at 3,200 yen.
SpaceX, Elon Musk's space transportation company,
on Monday named its first private passenger as Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of the online fashion retailer
