Japanese shares soar as U.S. Fed widens corporate bond buying

TOKYO, June 16 (Reuters) - Japanese shares gained on Tuesday, tracking an overnight surge on Wall Street after the U.S. Federal Reserve widened its corporate bond purchasing program to support financial markets.

The benchmark Nikkei average advanced 3.32% to 22,244.96 .N225 by the midday break, bouncing back from a near three-week low hit on Monday.

The Nikkei futures JNMcm1 extended gains by another 0.5% during the midday recess, after a Bloomberg report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-16/trump-team-weighs-1-trillion-for-infrastructure-to-spur-economy said U.S. President Donald Trump is considering $1 trillion infrastructure spending to bolster the economy, and the Bank of Japan maintained its policy stance. of highly cyclical shippers, steelmakers and automakers were the top three performing sector subindexes.

All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher on Monday after the Fed announced changes to its corporate bond buying program, applying an indexing approach to its secondary market corporate credit facility. investors remained cautious amid resurging cases of coronavirus infections, the Fed's move boosted risk sentiment.

On the Nikkei index, there were 222 advancers against three decliners.

Shippers .ISHIP.T and steelmakers .ISTEL.T were the biggest advancers among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry subindexes, both notching up 5.54%.

Auto maker shares .ITEQP.T were strong, with Yamaha Motor Co Ltd 7272.T surging 7.65%, Mazda Motor 7261.T up 7.61% and Mitsubishi Motor 7211.T gaining 7.77%.

In the broader market, Topix .TOPX gained 2.83% to 1,574.12.

Park 24 Co Ltd 4666.T dipped 7.86% after the car park operator reported its first deficit since listing, hugely hit by the stay-at-home trend due to the coronavirus outbreak.