TOKYO<\/strong> \u2013 The Nikkei stock index on Thursday achieved a historic milestone, briefly surpassing the 60,000-point mark for the first time ever. This remarkable surge was primarily fueled by robust performances from heavyweight technology shares, following significant remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding an indefinite ceasefire in the Middle East, which ignited hopes for regional stability.<\/p>\n At the opening of trading at 9:06 a.m., the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average demonstrated strong momentum, climbing an impressive 428.12 points, or 0.72 percent, from its Wednesday close, reaching 60,013.98. This early rally underscored investor confidence in the wake of positive geopolitical developments.<\/p>\n Key drivers of the market’s ascent included shares in artificial intelligence<\/strong> and semiconductor<\/strong> sectors. Investors showed a clear preference for companies in these areas, perceiving them as having relatively limited exposure to potential business performance concerns ahead of the upcoming earnings season, making them attractive safe havens.<\/p>\n While the initial gains experienced some trimming later in the day due to program selling, which briefly pushed the Nikkei into negative territory, market dealers reported a swift rebound. Stocks quickly recovered, trading robustly near the crucial 60,000 level, indicating underlying strength and investor resilience.<\/p>\n However, the broader market sentiment was tempered by lingering concerns over the potential impact on oil imports<\/strong>. This apprehension led to a decline in more than half of the stocks listed on both the Nikkei stock index and the broader Topix index, highlighting the delicate balance of market forces.<\/p>\n By 10 a.m., the Nikkei index was still up by 364.86 points, or 0.61 percent, from Wednesday, standing at 59,950.72. In contrast, the broader Topix index saw a slight dip, down 0.27 point, or 0.01 percent, to 3,744.72, reflecting a mixed market picture.<\/p>\n Within the top-tier Prime Market, the leading performers were issues in the mining<\/strong> and information and communication<\/strong> sectors. Conversely, shares in service and insurance industries were notable decliners, indicating a sector-specific rotation of capital.<\/p>\n Currency markets also saw activity; at 10 a.m., the dollar traded at 159.32-35 yen compared with 159.45-55 yen in New York and 159.21-23 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The euro was quoted at $1.1711-1712 and 186.59-61 yen against $1.1700-1710 and 186.66-76 yen in New York and $1.1755-1757 and 187.16-20 yen in Tokyo late Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n Historically, the Nikkei stock index had approached the 60,000 mark and reached an intraday high of over 59,000 on February 26, prior to the start of the war in Iran. This was following the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in the general election earlier that month. However, stocks later experienced a sharp decline as the broader conflict in the Middle East prompted significant selling pressure in Japan, an oil-importing nation. The index briefly dropped to around 50,500 before successfully recouping its losses, topping its record high last week, and breaking it once again on Wednesday, setting the stage for today’s historic achievement.<\/p>\n #Nikkei #StockMarket #JapanEconomy #MiddleEastPeace #Ceasefire #TechStocks #AI #Semiconductors #MarketUpdate #GlobalMarkets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nikkei Stock Index Surges Past 60,000 Amid Middle East Peace Hopes TOKYO \u2013 The Nikkei stock index on Thursday achieved a historic milestone, briefly surpassing the 60,000-point mark for the first time ever. This remarkable surge was primarily fueled by robust performances from heavyweight technology shares, following significant remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}