Nikkei Gains Back Ground After Thursday's Dip, ADRs to Watch (MC, KUB, MTU, NIPNY)

After its third worst day of trading on the year Thursday, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and its indices climbed to regain some of the ground. The Nikkei 225 shot up sharply in afternoon trading to gain 1.45% on the day. Although TSE traded stocks with ADRs did quite well over all, the leading stock with ADRs, Matsushita Electric Industrial (MC) up 3.81% was behind 34 other advancing firms, a broad selection of which many were domestic demand. I will repeat my opinion that trading days like this are a good indication of the strength of the Japanese economy, which has historically been recognized as an export-led economy.

Nikkei 225: +220.69 (+1.45%) closed at 15,404.05, opened approx. 55 points lower than prior close of 15,183.36, traded as high as 15,447.13 and as low as 15,117.15

TOPIX: +22.50 (+1.43%) closed at 1,591.23, opened a point lower from prior close of 1,568.73, intra-day high of 1,594.26, low of 1,566.90

JASDAQ: +1.27 (+1.12%) closed at 115.07, traded between 113.84 and 115.07

The biggest advancers and decliners among Tokyo Stock Exchange traded shares with ADRs:

* Advancers: Matsushita Electric Industrial (MC) +3.81%, Kubota (KUB) +3.48%, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) +3.16%, NEC (NIPNY) +3.01%, Sony (SNE) +1.83%, Kirin Brewery (KNBWY) +1.68%

* Decliners: Pioneer (PIO) -3.35%, Trend Micro (TMIC) -3.00%