TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened higher Wednesday, helped by a halt in the dollar’s weakness and rallies on Wall Street on hopes the US is working towards defusing trade conflicts with China.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.20 percent, or 43.53 points, to 22,263.26 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.04 percent, or 0.66 points, at 1,686.08.
“With four consecutive days of rallies in the US market and the yen’s (appreciation) against the dollar settling down, purchases are seen leading” the Tokyo market, SBI Securities said in a commentary.
However, with few fresh market-moving topics other than the US-China trade talks, the upward movement may soon lose momentum, analysts said.
The dollar fetched 110.12 yen in early Asian trade, against 110.27 yen in New York and 110.02 yen in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Turning to individual shares, commercial vehicle specialist Isuzu Motors rose 2.91 percent to 1,632 yen after a brokerage firm upgraded its estimate on the shares.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal was up 2.39 percent at 2,296.5 yen, trading house Toyota Tsusho rose 1.91 percent to 3,730 yen and Sharp climbed 2.84 percent to 435 yen.
In New York, US stocks rose for a fourth straight session with the S&P 500 hitting a record during the session. The Dow ended up 0.3 percent at 25,822.29.
Telecom shares were down for a second consecutive day following the top Japanese government spokesman’s comment that mobile phone call costs were too expensive.
SoftBank was down 1.72 percent at 9,652 yen, NTT DoCoMo was lower by 1.77 percent at 2,770 yen and KDDI dropped 3.28 percent to 2,856.5 yen.
© Agence France-Presse