World markets primarily had strong days again on Thursday as a positive tone resulting from recent economic speculations of quantitative easing and earnings releases is generating confidence and building momentum.
After breaking through 9,600 intraday, the Nikkei 225 gave some back, but had a solid day as the yen further advanced against the U.S. dollar; hitting its highest against the greenback since April 1995 and topping the 81.37 that it had reached earlier this week.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 closed up 180.00 points, or 1.91%, to 9,583.51.
Not Yours -- The Japanese government wants Google to remove the Chinese name from islands that are being disputed between the countries.
Mitsubishi Motor Corp announced it will begin mass producing electric vehicles for corporate customers by the end of next year in an attempt to increase its customer base for ''green'' vehicles.
Yahoo Japan Corp saw its shares surge 6.36% to 30,600 yen today to lead the gainers.
J Front Retailing gained 5.97% while Nomura Holdings rose 5.57%.
Japan's largest oil explorer, Inpex Corp added 4.1% to 454,500 yen as crude prices continue to climb.
In China, stocks closed mixed today as the Shanghai Composite moved north for the sixth straight day, but the smaller Shenzen Composite lost ground. Despite the upday in Shanghai, losers outnumbered gainers by 733 to 154 and 905 to 175 in Shenzhen.
The Shanghai Composite closed up 18.27 points, or .64%, to 2,879.64.
Financials strong in China -- Huaxia Bank announced late yesterday that it expected net profits to increase more than 50% year over year for the first nine months of the year; shares rose 1.26% to 12.03 yuan.
China Everbright Bank rose 9.97% to 4.19 yuan, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 3.55% to 4.38 yuan.
The Hang Seng had another strong day; gaining 394.48 points to close at 23,852.17. That's an increase of more than 700 points in the last two days.
Elsewhere, the smaller markets were somewhat mixed:
South Korea's Kospi gained 1.26% to 1,899.76.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed up by 1.714% to 4,699.100.
India's Sensex dropped; losing .92%.
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost .59 points to 1,496.38.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index climbed 6.50 points.
Shenzhen Composite fell by 1.886% to 1,206.396.
Taiwan's Taiex added 108.79 points.
Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped by .22%.
New Zealand's NZX 50 rose by .95%.
Philippine shares were up .938%.
Shares in Thailand closed up by .113%.
