Shinzo Abe's shooting jolts Japanese markets; Yen rises
The Yen rose by as much as 0.5 per cent as details emerged of the shooting during Abe's campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Earlier in the day, the Yen was at 135.9 per Dollar.
FollowFormer Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shooting resulted in the Yen rising to 135.33 per Dollar. The Yen rose by as much as 0.5 per cent as details emerged of the shooting during Abe's campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Earlier in the day, the Yen was at 135.9 per Dollar.
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By 10:22 AM IST, the Nikkei index had risen 0.5 per cent to 26,633.63, after climbing as much as 1.4% earlier in the session. The broader Topix index had risen 0.54 per cent to 1,893.43.Â
Tokyo shares had been trading in positive territory on Thursday, a day after the minutes of the Fed policy meeting emerged that did not mention a possible recession in the United States. The central bank also endorsed a 0.50 or 0.75 percentage point rate hike for July to control inflation.Â
But former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's comments threatening the loss of oil and gas supply to Japan saw stocks of trading firms Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp fall 5.45 per cent and 4.92 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Abe's condition is still unknown. The attack has been a shock for a country where gun violence is rare. In fact, the weapon used to target the former Japanese Prime Minister seemed to be homemade and held together with black tape.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told media persons that barbarism would not be tolerated. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was also campaigning for Sunday's upper house election, cut short his event and returned to Tokyo to take stock of the situation.
During his term as Prime Minister, Abe had rolled out a series of economic policies, popularly known as 'Abenomics', intended to drag his country's economy out of decades of stagnation.
