TOKYO, March 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, as
investors took heart from rallies on Wall Street and a relatively cheap yen
against the dollar.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.06 percent or 222.64 points at
21,256.40 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.86 percent
or 13.52 points at 1,596.37.
“The rallies in US shares and a relatively cheaper yen is helping the
Tokyo market gain,” Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online
Securities, said in a commentary.
The dollar fetched 110.62 yen in early Asian trade, unchanged from the
level in New York but up from 110.13 yen in Tokyo late Thursday.
Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday following a recovery in 10-year US
Treasury yields, after weakness in bond rates in recent sessions raised
worries about slowing economic growth.
Japan’s closely watched factory output rose modestly in February with
unemployment staying at record low levels, official data showed Friday before
the opening bell, underscoring the patchy recovery of the world’s third
largest economy.
SoftBank Group was up 1.99 percent at 10,755 yen, Toyota was up 0.34
percent at 6,536 yen, and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron
was up 1.09 percent at 16,200 yen.
Pharmaceuticals firm Daiichi Sankyo surged 16 percent to the day’s limit
of 5,100 yen at one point, after it announced a tie-up with AstraZeneca for
development of a cancer drug. The deal could be worth as much as $6.9
billion, a statement from Daiichi Sankyo said.
On Wall Street, the Dow gained 0.4 percent to close the session at
25,717.46.