Roundup: Tokyo stocks surge as sentiment bolstered by Macron's election win in France

Tokyo stocks closed sharply higher Monday, with the benchmark Nikkei rising more than 2 percent as pro-European Union candidate Emmanuel Macron winning the French presidential election bolstered investor confidence.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 450 points, or 2.31 percent, from last Tuesday to end the day at 19,895.70, marking its highest closing level since Dec. 3, 2015.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, finished 35.56 points, or 2.29 percent, higher at 1,585.86.

Traders here said the market mood continued to brighten in heavy trade as the day went on, following Macron, a former economy minister, coming in well ahead of eurosceptic Marine Le Pen in Sunday's runoff vote in France.

They said foreign investors with long-term positions who had previously been buying Japanese stocks based on robust earnings reports, were overtaken by short-term investors covering their positions on buybacks, having dumped stock previously on geopolitical concerns.

"Political risks in Europe were one of the biggest risks of the year, but with Macron winning the French election, such risks have receded so they are seen buying back," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

Other market players said that the yen's retreat against the U.S. dollar, coupled with the U.S. Labor Department reporting Friday that the U.S. economy created 211,000 nonfarm jobs in April, which was more than median market expectations, with the unemployment rate dropping to a 10-year low, added to a risk-on market mood.

"Money flowed to the market as investors' risk-on stance grew," said Chihiro Ota, general manager of investment research at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

Among issues that advanced were those with a sizable exposure to European markets, with Nintendo adding 455 yen, or 1.6 percent, to 28,810 yen and Daikin Industries jumping 480 yen, or 4.5 percent, to 11,225 yen.

Export-linked issues also found traction on the yen's retreat, with Sony rising 136 yen, or 3.5 percent, to 3,989 yen and Suzuki Motor accelerating 210 yen, or 4.5 percent, to end the day at 4,922 yen.

But steel makers here lost ground, with Sumitomo Metal Corp, JFE Holdings and Nippon Steel each losing around 0.3 percent each, following U.S. trade officials saying recently that an anti-dumping probe had led to duties on imports being locked in for five years.

All industry categories on the main section advanced, however, with mining, air transportation, and insurance issues comprising the day's notable gainers, and advancing issues outpaced declining ones by 1,875 to 108, on the First Section.

Trading volume on the main section on Monday totaled 2,408.08 million shares, jumping from Tuesday's volume of 1,862.94 million shares.

The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 3,443 billion yen (30.54 billion U.S. dollars).

Markets here were closed for three days from Wednesday for the Golden Week string of national holidays. Endit