Nikkei 225 breaks 10k barrier on Osama bin Laden "optimism"

May 4, 2011 - PRLog -- The news that Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, was found and killed by US troops in Pakistan has helped to rally the Nikkei 225.

Indeed, yesterday (May 2nd) the premier stock index in Japan closed on 10,004.20 points, the first time it has done so since the country's earthquake on March 11th, with Reuters revealing that a potential Wall Street rally led to "optimism" among investors.

Such a boost to the Nikkei 225 resulted in it advancing by 1.57 per cent, although the news resource also attributed the rise to strong earnings reports from Caterpillar.

Sony also helped to lift stocks after it announced that following the hacking of personal details on its Playstation Network, services can this week resume.

Its share price advanced by 2.47 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the news.

However, the organisation has since revealed today that hackers may have stolen Sony Online Entertainment customer details, potentially affecting 24.6 million accounts.

Japan is enjoying a Golden Week holiday from today until Thursday, so investors could see how Sony's share price responds on the New York Stock Exchange.

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