Tokyo stocks bounce back after losing streak, U.S. recession fears remain

TOKYO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed higher Monday as investors sought out cheap issues following the market's recent downturn, although continued concerns over the health of the U.S. economy capped gains.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 218.19 points, or 0.84 percent, from Friday to close the day at 26,153.81.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, added 24.67 points, or 1.34 percent, to finish at 1,869.71.

Local brokers said that concerns over the outlook of the U.S. economy weighed on the market, with investors now switching their view that it was now a question of "when" nor "if" the U.S. economy would go into recession.

They added that U.S. manufacturing data from the Institute for Supply Management, released Friday, showed a decline to 53.0 from 56.1 a month earlier, its lowest level since June 2020 and below the 54.9 market consensus, dented sentiment Monday and added to woes about the outlook for the world's largest economy.

"Focus is starting to switch from whether the United States will fall into a recession, to a matter of when it will happen and how long it may last," Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., said.

"Weak U.S. stock futures limited the market's climbs," Miura added.

Some investors took a wait-and-see approach Monday as a number of new economic indicators are set to be released this week in the United States that will likely inform or underscore the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy and further interest rate hikes to combat inflation.

By the close of play, electric and gas, mining and wholesale trade issues comprised those that gained the most, and issues that rose outpaced those that fell by 1,515 to 286, while 37 ended the day unchanged.

Utility-related issues found favor as the nation is still in the grip of an unusually early heatwave with the government having requested a three-month "energy-saving" period through September during which people are being urged to conserve power by not using unnecessary appliances during peak demand energy hours.

As such, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) was a notable winner, soaring 12.9 percent.

Mitsubishi Corp. clawed back some ground, having lost 5.2 percent last week, to close 4 percent higher Monday, while Softbank Group shares were bought back, helping to prop up the broader market, with the technology investor conglomerate adding 3 percent.

On the Prime Market on Monday, 1,097.79 million shares changed hands, dropping from Friday's volume of 1,349.73 million shares.

The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 2,439.65 billion yen (18.02 billion U.S. dollars).