March 18 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks advanced on Wednesday
after Wall Street staged a strong rebound as policymakers across
the world cobbled together packages to counter the severe
restrictions on various regular activities aiming at slowing the
spread of the coronavirus.
The overall sentiment, however, was still fragile as
lockdowns in Europe and the United States fanned concerns about
the widening epidemic and whether policy support would be
adequate enough to contain the economic fallout.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 rose 1.7% to 17,308.33
by the midday break, moving off a 3-1/2-year low touched on
Tuesday.
The Nikkei's volatility index .JNIV , a measure of
investors' volatility expectations based on option pricing and
considered to be a fear gauge, dropped 0.6% to 56.32, but was
still not far from Monday's nine-year peak of 60.86.
Adding to the wariness were U.S. stock futures ESc1 , which
slid as much as 3.5% in Asian trade, a day after the S&P 500
.SPX climbed 6.0% and the Dow .DJI gained 5.2%. .N
Shares in Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp 4901.T jumped
14.7% after a Chinese official said the company's Avigan
anti-flu drug appeared to help coronavirus patients recover.
The broader Topix .TOPX rose 2.7% to 1,302.39 by the
midday recess, moving further away from a near four-year trough
touched on Tuesday.
All but three of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange traded higher, with chemicals .ICHEM.T , sea
transport .ISHIP.T and precision machinery .IPRCS.T being
the top three performing sectors.
Hopes that the Bank of Japan will buy Exchanged Traded Funds
(ETFs) more aggressively supported the market broadly, traders
said.
The BOJ bought a record 120 billion yen ($1.12 billion) of
Japanese stock ETFs on Tuesday, even though the broader market
index rose in the morning. = 107.2800 yen)