(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Tokyo September 11 (QNA) - Business sentiment at large Japanese companies turned positive in the three months through September suggesting the negative impact of the April 1 consumption tax hike is waning a government survey showed Thursday. The confidence index covering firms capitalized at 1 billion yen or more came to 11.1 in the third quarter of 2014 sharply rebounding from -14.6 during the April-June period the joint survey by the Finance Ministry and Cabinet Office showed. The consumption tax was raised by 3% points to 8% on April 1 according to Japan's (Kyodo) News Agency. The survey also indicated many large companies are optimistic about the outlook for the world's third-biggest economy with the index forecast to stand at 9.9 in the October-December quarter and at 7.3 in the three months from January next year. Also in Japan the Tokyo stocks rose today with the Nikkei index hitting a fresh seven-and-a-half-month high as investor sentiment was lifted by overnight gains on Wall Street. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 75.66 points or 0.48% from Wednesday to 15864.44 briefly touching 15905.03 its highest level since Jan. 23 on an intraday basis according to Japan's (Kyodo) News Agency. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 3.29 points or 0.25% to 1310.08. (QNA)
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