Japan Stock Market Rises Boosted by Weak Yen

Japan’s stock market has risen – despite continuing concerns over Greece – helped by a weaker yen and higher US markets overnight.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 share index closed up 0.95% at 20,522.50.

The dollar was buying 123.44 yen in Asian trade, up from 123.15 yen in New York on Wednesday.

A weaker yen against the dollar is good for Japan’s big exporting firms.

It makes their goods cheaper to buy overseas and gives a boost to their bottom line when they repatriate earnings.

In the US, markets were buoyed by news from payroll firm ADP that businesses had added 237,000 positions in June. The figure was up from May and beat expectations. Official US jobs numbers are due out later on Thursday.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 1.5% at 5,599.80, despite official figures showing the country’s trade deficit in May was bigger than expected.

Thursday’s figures put the gap at 2.75bn Australian dollars ($2.09bn; £1.34bn) against forecasts of a $2.2bn deficit.

In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index closed up 0.45% at 2,107.33.

via BBC

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