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Tokyo stocks higher after Wall Street gains
TOKYO, July 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday,
backed by gains on Wall Street and the yen’s downwards trend.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.70 percent or 154.50 points to
22,206.68 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.69 percent or
11.74 points at 1,723.53.
“Japanese stocks will test higher prices with sentiment buoyed by rises in
US stocks and the yen’s downtrend,” Okasan Online Securities chief strategist
Yoshihiro Ito said in a client note.
Wall Street stocks rose solidly for a third straight session on Monday,
with beaten-down banking shares gaining as investors again brushed aside
trade war worries.
The dollar was trading at 110.96 yen against 110.82 yen in New York Monday
afternoon.
Investors were focussing on economic fundamentals in the absence of fresh
news on US trade frictions with China.
“I want to underscore that you cannot conclude now that the global economy
will lose steam as the trade war escalates,” said Masayuki Kubota, chief
strategist at Rakuten Securities.
“There are some issues that deserve buying among stocks in the
semiconductor or automobile industry or those related to China that had faced
too much selling,” he said in a client note.
In individual stocks trade, SoftBank Group jumped 2.55 percent to 8,797
yen after it announced its filing with the Tokyo bourse for the listing of
its mobile unit, aiming to raise more than $20 billion.
Nissan rallied 2.19 percent to 1,025.5 yen after plunging more than four
percent on Monday after saying it would make a statement on exhaust
measurement issues.
After the market closed, the automaker admitted that data on exhaust
emissions and fuel economy had been deliberately “altered”.
But the alterations affected fewer than 1,200 cars, the automaker said.
Toyota was up 0.16 percent at 7,222 yen while Sony gained 0.82 percent to
5,739 yen.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1104 hrs