As of the market close on the 29th, the number of rising and falling stocks in the Nikkei Average consisted of 73 stocks rising, 149 stocks falling, and 3 stocks unchanged.

The Nikkei average fell. It closed the morning session at 38,193.01 yen, down 156.05 yen (-0.41%) from the previous day, with an estimated volume of 750 million shares.

The U.S. market was closed yesterday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. In the foreign exchange market, trading of major currencies remained sluggish. The dollar-yen rate showed hesitant gains. After briefly being bought up to 151.77 yen, it later fell to 151.41 yen, closing trading at 151.50 yen.

Although the U.S. market was closed, due to the yen's strength against the dollar reaching the 150 yen level and a weak dollar trend, the Tokyo market started with a selling bias. The morning announcement of the Tokyo metropolitan area consumer price index exceeding market expectations strengthened speculations of a Bank of Japan rate hike, leading to a scene where the dollar broke into the 149 yen level for the first time in a month. The Nikkei average initially started lower amidst a further strengthening yen trend, with moments below 38,000 yen observed.

In the Nikkei average constituent stocks, Fanuc Corp <6954> fell following reports of EMC irregularities, and automobile-related stocks such as Nissan Motor <7201>, Isuzu Motors <7202>, Toyota Motor <7203>, Mitsubishi Motors <7211>, were sold off due to the strong yen trend. Additionally, Sumco <3436>, Disco <6146>, Kikkoman <2801>, Okuma <6103>, Sumitomo Pharma <4506>, Resonac <4004>, among others, declined.

On the other hand, benefiting from the strengthening yen, Nitori Holdings <9843>, Sapporo Holdings <2501>, Toho Gas <9533>, Osaka Gas <9532>, and other yen-positive stocks rose. Furthermore, with increasing speculations of a Bank of Japan rate hike, notable gains were seen in financial stocks such as Chiba Bank <8331>, Shizuoka FG <5831>, Dai-ichi Life Holdings <8750>, SOMPO Holdings <8630>, Resona Holdings <8308>, Concordia <7186>, Mizuho <8411>. Additionally, shares like Furukawa Electric <5801>, Kajima Construction <1812>, and AGC <5201> were bought.

By sector, transportation equipment, machinery, precision instruments, wholesale, petroleum, coal, among others, declined, while electricity, gas, textiles, air transportation, banks, insurance, among others, rose.

The top contributor to the decline was tokyo electron <8035>, which lowered the Nikkei Average by about 27 yen with just one stock. The second was fanuc corp <6954>, followed by fast retailing <9983>, terumo <4543>, disco <6146>, kikkomAN <2801>, and toyota motor <7203>, etc.

On the other hand, the top contributor to the price increase was ADVANTEST <6857>, which pushed the Nikkei average up by about 12 yen with just one stock. The second place was Nitori HD <9843>, followed by NTT Data G <9613>, Recruit HD <6098>, Fujifilm <4901>, Daiichi Sankyo <4568>, Sumitomo Realty <8830>, etc.

*As of 11:30.

Nikkei Stock Average 38193.01 (-156.05)

Number of rising stocks 73 (contribution +71.72)

Number of declining stocks 149 (contribution -227.77)

Number of unchanged stocks 3

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