Stocks Fall, Yen Rises As Ishiba Takes Helm In Japan


(MENAFN- Asia Times) Stock market investors and currency traders cheered when Sanae Takaichi, a protege of former prime Minister Shinzo Abe and proponent of his stock market-friendly Abenomics, rose in polls and won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) first-round presidential election last Friday.

In that first round, Takaichi received 181 votes, followed by Shigeru Ishiba with 154, Shinjiro Koizumi (backed by ex-premier Yoshihide Suga) with 136 and six other candidates who lagged far behind. financial professionals, who had ranked Takaichi as their top choice in an Asahi newspaper poll, celebrated in advance.

The Nikkei 225 rose 1,959.30 points, or 5.2%, in two days to peak at 39,829.56 on Friday afternoon after the first-round vote. But investor hopes were dashed when Ishiba won the run-off, 215 to 194, to become party leader and almost certainly Japan's next prime minister.

The Nikkei 225 Futures index dropped almost 6% in the after-hours session on Friday. The Nikkei 225 itself lost 1,910.01 points, or 4.8%, on Monday (September 30), falling back to 37,919.55.

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Asia Times

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