In an interview with Bloomberg yesterday, Japan head of global equities and commodity derivatives for BNP Paribas SA Kyoya Okazawa said that it has completed its hiring plan two years ahead of schedule. Its Tokyo equity desk had a new addition of six people, boosting its manpower to strengthen its coverage on equity in Japan. The news agency saw that the new hires indicated the French bank was bullish about Japan's stocks.
Some of the hires were from major banks. Former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee Tsukasa Odawara had started today selling Nikkei 225 Stock Average-linked structured products on the French bank's sales desk. Ex-Jefferies LLC Masahiro Wakasugi would be covering information technology stocks. Deutsche Bank AG's former employee Masashi Mori was hired as a consumer analyst. Ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc Yasuharu Sugimura would be handling real estate and transportation stocks.
Okazawa said, "Japan used to be a forgotten country, but Abenomics pushed it to the center of attention completely. We want to ramp up our coverage on companies that rely on domestic demand."
The country's topix indenx rose 39% this year, which was reportedly more than any of the developed markets. BNP Paribas projected that the stock index would climb 13% higher at 1,350 than the stock index close yesterday. The bank also expected that the gauge would reach 1,500 by the end of the first quarter of next year.
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