Japan stocks push higher as market awaits Greek meeting outcome
By Michael Kitchen
Published: June 21, 2015 8:51 p.m. ET

Japanese stocks shook higher Monday morning, as investors awaited the outcome of the European Union's emergency meeting on the Greek crisis. With reports saying Athens had submitted a raft of planned reforms in exchange for fiscal aid, Japan's Nikkei Average NIK, +0.99% moved from a flat open to sit 0.7% higher after about half an hour of trade, with the Topix I0000, +0.13% up 0.6%. While the dollar USDJPY, +0.25% had fallen to ￥122.81 after spending most of the previous week above ￥123, apparent optimism over a solution to the Greek situation helped many of the globally exposed blue chips move solidly higher. Shares of Sony Corp. 6758, +0.70% SNE, -2.30% rallied 2.9%, Komatsu Ltd. 6301, +1.05% KMTUF, +3.49% and Sharp Corp. 6753, +0.00% SHCAF, +10.32% rose 1.8% each, and Konica Minolta Inc. 7731, +1.31% KNCAY, -1.69% jumped 4.4%, coinciding with the company's purchase of unlisted SymQuest Group. Stock in Gungho Online Entertainment Inc. 3765, -0.75% GUNGF, -14.92% traded 2.6% higher as the Nikkei reported the company planned to retire 8% of its stock float, while Tokyo Electron Ltd. 8035, +3.13% TOELF, -11.41% went the other way, losing 0.4% after news its planned merger with Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, -0.23% of the U.S. had failed to win regulatory approval. Banks were also broadly higher (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. 8306, -1.57% MTU, -0.84% up 2.5%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. 8316, -2.36% SMFG, -1.66% up 1.7%, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. 8411, -0.88% MFG, -2.35% up 0.9%), also likely bolstered by hope for a Greek deal. Over in the auto-maker space, Toyota Motor Corp. 7203, -0.58% TM, -1.23% sat fractionally lower, while Honda Motor Co. 7267, +0.23% HMC, -1.26% added 0.9%, even after confirming that the death of a California motorist was due to the rupture of a faulty Takata Corp. 7312, +1.65% TKTDY, +0.66% airbag. Takata stock lost 0.4%. Among other movers, Asahi Kasei Corp. 3407, +3.13% added 1.9% after a Nikkei news report said the electronics-and-chemical company would report "a roughly 20% rise" for its April-June operating profit, compared to a year earlier. Stock in ANA Holdings Inc. 9202, +0.18% ALNPF, +3.25% improved by 1.6%, with a separate Nikkei report quoting an executive at the airline as saying there would be no stock offerings to raise capital in the next year or two.