Tokyo key stocks close at all-time highs

Tokyo stocks climbed Thursday, with their broader index ending at a 34-year, following overnight gains on Wall Street. The Tokyo Stock Price Index, which includes all shares of the First Section on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, advanced 26.29 points, or 0.92 percent, from Wednesday to 2,898.47, its highest finish since December 18, 1989, just before Japan's asset-inflated bubble economy burst in the early 1990s. Buy orders were led by semiconductors and other high-tech related stocks. Shares of export-oriented companies also advanced amid the yen's depreciation against the US dollar, which hovered around the lower JPY 161 level. The weak yen supports exports by making Japanese products more competitive overseas and increasing their overseas profits when converted into local currency. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average also gained 332.89 points, or 0.82 percent, to 40,913.65, topping its previous record of 40,888.43 marked on March 22. On Wednesday, major US benchmarks the SandP 500 and the Nasdaq Composite touched fresh all-time highs. Source: Kuwait News Agency