Nikkei Closes at More Than Two-Week High After US Interest Rate Hike

The Nikkei index closed at its highest level in more than two weeks on Thursday, following a strong rally on Wall Street on Wednesday night, after the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) raised interest rates as expected, while boosting hopes of a breakthrough in the Russian conflict. Ukrainian morale.

The Nikkei index jumped 3.46 percent to 26,652.89 points, its highest closing level since March 1.

The broader Topix index rose 2.47 percent to 1,899.01 points.

And Wall Street’s main indices rose in the evening after the US central bank raised the interest rate for the first time since 2018, and announced a plan to further raise interest rates to combat inflation.

The SoftBank investment group’s share jumped 5.89 percent, following the rise in the share of Alibaba, one of the group’s holdings, by about 40 percent in US trading.

Other leading shares, including Fast Retailing, owner of clothing store Uniqlo, rose 6.92 percent, and Tokyo Electron rose 4.86 percent.

East Japan Railways Corp. fell 1.81 percent after the railway operator suspended express train operations to Fukushima and other areas in the north. The suspension of operations came after a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan’s northeastern coast off Fukushima on Wednesday.