The Nikkei index is Recovering After Falling to a Five-Month Low

Japan’s Nikkei rose on Thursday after falling to a five-month low, boosted by gains in Sony and other video game makers, and after China ramped up monetary easing measures to boost a sluggish economy by cutting a set of key interest rates.

The Nikkei increased at a close 1.11% to 27,772.93 points.

With the real estate sector expected to continue to falter in 2022 and the rapid spread of omicron, which is weakening consumer activity, many analysts in China expect more monetary easing measures, although the rest of the large economies seem to be heading towards tightening their monetary policies.

Video game maker Konami Holdings jumped 6.20 percent, the highest percentage gain on the Nikkei index. Sony’s shares rose 5.84 percent, recovering from a sharp decline of nearly 13 percent in the previous session. Nintendo shares rose 2.8 percent.

Toyota Motor shares rose 1.72 percent, after falling 5 percent in the previous session. SoftBank Group shares rose 2.12 percent.

The broader Topix index rose 0.98 percent.

But chip makers’ shares followed the lead of their American peers and fell. Tokyo Electron shares fell 0.45 percent, while Advantest shares fell 1.57 percent.