In Tokyo on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 closed at its highest level in four years as the Japanese economy seemed to be on track in its recovery and as oil prices seemed at least not to be rising as quickly as they had been earlier. The Nikkei was up 0.8 percent to 12,506.97, while the Topix index gained 0.9 percent to 1,277.33.

The real estate sector made the biggest gains on the day, rising 2.1 percent as a whole on the strength of data that showed the biggest year-on-year jump in housing starts in seven years. Mitsui Fudosan, the largest developer in Japan, gained 1.8 percent to ¥1,446.

The iron and steel sector also did well on the day, rising 1.7 percent for the day. Nippon Steel added 1.9 percent to close at ¥328. Several stocks gained specifically due to anticipation that they would do more business as reconstruction from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in the United States gets underway.

Earth-moving equipment maker Komatsu was up 3.4 percent to ¥1,267, while Hitachi Construction Machinery gained 4.8 percent to ¥1,776. In addition, Tokyu construction added 7 percent to ¥200 on the news that the FTSE would list its shares on the FTSE All World Index.