Stocks surge in Tokyo, rise in London but end off day's highs, climb to a record in Frankfurt
AuthorAffiliation A Wall Street Journal News Roundup</br></br>Office-equipment stocks were the top gainers in the Dow Jones World Industry Groups, closing at 184.71, up 7.29, or 4.1%, with Ricoh of Japan posting a 7.4% gain in local currency. Specialty-retailing stocks trailed at 132.62, down 1.50, or 1.1%, with Circuit City Stores of the U.S. sliding 3.8%.</br></br>In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225-stock index, which edged up 29.35 points Wednesday, climbed 283.99 to 20943.90. On Friday, the Nikkei lost 306.55 points to close the morning session at 20637.35. Thursday's first-section volume was estimated at 340 million shares, up from 277.6 million shares a day earlier. Rising issues widely outnumbered falling issues, 739 to 342. The Tokyo Stock Price Index, or Topix, of all first-section issues advanced 15.40 points to 1551.76.</br></br>Tokyo sectors chalking up strong gains included electronics, precision machinery, autos and pharmaceuticals, after Japan on Tuesday reported supportive data on Japan's gross domestic product for the quarter ended Sept. 30, though many investors remained unconvinced about momentum for economic recovery. The bourse also was helped by arbitrage-linked dealings by Japanese pension funds that bought stock-index futures. Foreign investors stepped up their buying after the U.S. dollar fell against the yen. Foreign funds had sold recently to avoid exchange-rate losses from a strong dollar.</br></br>In London, the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index added 6.0 points to 4051.2, down from the session peak of 4076.0, though cushioned from the intraday low of 4043.8. The FT 30-stock index eased 2.0 points to 2797.1. Provisional volume was 818.6 million shares, compared with 653.6 million shares a day earlier.