Japan stocks reverse losses to end up 1% on stimulus hopes

TOKYO, March 2 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rebounded in
choppy trading on Monday, as investors pinned their hopes on a
coordinated monetary policy response from major central banks to
offset the hit to the global economy from a fast-spreading
coronavirus.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 finished 1% higher at
21,344.08 points, after five sessions of decline. It slid as
much as 1.5% to its lowest since Sept. 5 earlier in the day
before markets recouped after the Bank of Japan Governor
Haruhiko Kuroda pledged to take steps to stabilise markets.
The central bank will monitor the developments carefully and
offer sufficient liquidity via market operations and asset
purchases, Kuroda said in an emergency statement. On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell issued a
statement and said that the U.S. central bank was ready to
support the economy. The Nikkei's volatility index .JNIV , a measure of
investors' volatility expectations based on option pricing, rose
to a four-year high of 47.96, before dropping sharply to 38.7.
The broader Topix .TOPX ended up 1.0% at 1,525.87 as
Kuroda's statement helped to curtail the safe-haven yen's
earlier gains and provided a tailwind for broad-based Japanese
stocks.
About four-fifths of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange were trading higher, with services .ISVCS.T ,
fish and forestry .IFISH.T and retailer .IRETL.T becoming
the top three performers.
The index of Mothers startup shares .MTHR rebounded 5.8%,
after plunging 6.3% to hit a fresh 4-year trough on Friday.
Cyclical stocks that suffered sharp falls on Friday
outperformed the overall markets, with semiconductor-related
Tokyo Electron Ltd 8035.T and Advantest Corp 6857.T climbing
4.5% and 5.0%, respectively, while Sony Corp 6758.T gained
4.0%.
Bucking the trend, Yaskawa Electric Corp 6506.T slipped
0.4% after surprisingly weak Chinese manufacturing activity
surveys pointed to slower growth in the world's second-largest
economy, a big market for the Japanese company.
The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index
(PMI) tumbled to 40.3 in February, the lowest level since the
survey began in 2004, while China's official Purchasing
Managers' Index (PMI) fell to a record low of 35.7 last month.
Elsewhere, Rakuten Inc 4755.T dropped 1.3% as Japan's Fair
Trade Commission recommended a Tokyo court order the e-commerce
firm to halt the introduction of free shipping after the market
closed on Friday.