Fast Retailing Market Cap Tops Y3tln For 1st Time

TOKYO (NQN)--Shares in Fast Retailing Co. (9983) were widening their gains Wednesday morning, in line with the belief that the broader market will rise amid growing expectations of a U.S. economic recovery and further monetary easing steps by the Bank of Japan.

Given the Uniqlo brand operator's heavy weighting in the Nikkei Stock Average, investors are buying the stock for arbitrage trading of stock index futures and cash stocks.

Fast Retailing said Monday evening that domestic same-store sales at its Uniqlo casual clothing chain for February rose 9.6% on the year, for the first increase in two months. Investors are also buying the stock because of the company's solid earnings.

Fast Retailing briefly jumped 1,680 yen, or 6.3%, to 28,450 yen, its highest point since February 2002, when the company conducted a stock split. The stock's market capitalization surpassed 3 trillion yen for the first time, taking the 17th spot on the market capitalization ranking for the stocks listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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