Shares soar despite Tokyo fall

SHARE prices in London and New York rallied sharply yesterday, shrugging off the latest fall in Japanese stocks to rise for the second day running.

The FT-SE 100 index rose almost 50 points to score its largest daily gain since the post-election surge. By early afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial average had risen 50 points to 3,384.

The rise on Wall Street was helped by a firm tone in the US bond market and a return to profit by Ford, the US car manufacturer. But in Tokyo yesterday, the Nikkei-225 average closed 330.69 points down, at 15,095.95, driven lower by rumours of more bad property debts. Although futures trading indicated that a modest rally could occur when the Tokyo market opens early today, analysts were divided over whether the Nikkei would fall below 15,000.

A further drop is seen as underlining the apparent inability of Japanese financial institutions, which count stocks as part of their capital, to meet next year's targets for capital adequacy ratios.