Japan's Nikkei up after news GM to go bankrupt
TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average traded up 1.2 percent on Monday after a U.S. official said troubled automaker General Motors GM.N will go into bankruptcy, up from gains of 0.8 percent at the morning close. Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) pared morning losses, while Nissan (7201.T) extended previous gains.
Just after the morning session ended, a U.S. official said General Motors GM.N will file for bankruptcy protection on Monday. [ID:nCARS1]
Market analysts said the impact was likely to be neutral at first as the market tried to work out the implications of the move, though there could be some gains on relief that some short-term uncertainty has been removed.
"The filing will basically eliminate one potentially bad factor and stocks could rise, though of course the longer-term impact is harder to gauge and may have to be watched," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
"There's some expectation that U.S. shares could rise, and this is underpinning the Nikkei."
The benchmark Nikkei .N225 was up 111.84 points and on track for a nearly eight-month closing high. The broader Topix rose 1.2 percent to 908.79.
Toyota shed 0.3 percent to 3,800 yen and Honda lost 0.7 percent to 2,730 yen. Nissan rose 1.4 percent to 579 yen.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies)
