World Shares Slip Amid Middle East War

Tokyo: World shares were mostly lower on Thursday after US stocks stalled as investors awaited developments in the Middle East. Germany’s DAX shed 0.7 per cent to 19,026.36 while the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.8 per cent to 7,514.49. In London, the FTSE 100 gained 0.2 per cent to 8,307.45. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.4 per cent. The US dollar gained against the Japanese yen as officials indicated that conditions were not conducive for an interest rate hike. That helped push Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index higher. It gained 2 per cent to 38,552.06, while the dollar traded at 146.81 Japanese yen, up from 146.41 yen late Wednesday. A weaker yen is an advantage for major export manufacturers like Toyota Motor Corp and Sony Corp.

The dollar had been trading around 142 yen after the ruling Liberal Democrats chose Shigeru Ishiba to head the party and succeed Fumio Kishida as prime minister. Ishiba, who took office on Tuesday, had expressed support for the central bank’s recent moves to raise its near-zero benchmark interest rate, which stands at around 0.25 per cent.