TOKYO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rallied to a
one-week high on Thursday as a rapidly weakening yen, which hit
a near 10-month low versus the dollar overnight, lifted
wide-ranging exporters, such as automakers.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 was up 0.9% at
23,607.77 by the midday break, after touching its one-week high
of 23,806.56 earlier in the session. The broader Topix .TOPX
rose 0.7% to 1,682.77.
All but four of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange were trading in positive territory, with mining
.IMING.T , paper and pulp .IPAPR.T and transport equipment
.ITEQP.T being the top three performers.
The yen dived to its lowest level since early May versus the
dollar of 111.60 yen JPY=EBS overnight, providing a tailwind
for Japanese exporters as a weaker local currency boosts
corporate profits when they are repatriated.
Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T climbed 2.3%, while Honda Motor
Co Ltd 7267.T advanced 2.7% and Mazda Motor Corp 7261.T
added 2.3%.
The Nikkei's heavyweight SoftBank Group 9984.T jumped 3.8%
after the tech conglomerate said it plans to borrow up to 500
billion yen ($4.5 billion) from 16 domestic and foreign
financial institutions using almost a third of its stake in
telco SoftBank Corp 9434.T as collateral. Elsewhere, Maeda Road Construction 1883.T dropped 5.8%
after the company said it plans to pay a special dividend of
53.6 billion yen to counter a takeover bid by its biggest
shareholder Maeda Corp 1824.T . = 111.2400 yen)