TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday, as investors were encouraged by gains on Wall Street and brisk corporate results reported recently by Japanese companies.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.35 percent, or 77.97 points, to 22,617.09 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.21 percent, or 3.68 points, at 1,797.76.
Japanese shares are being boosted “by the expanding global economy and good earnings reports by companies at home,” said Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities.
Exporters traded higher in the early exchanges, with optical equipment maker Olympus gaining 0.94 percent to 4,290 yen and electronics giant Panasonic edging up 0.26 percent at 1,717.5 yen.
Carmakers were also in the green, with Toyota trading up 0.13 percent at 7.166 yen and rival Nissan up 0.13 percent at 1,113 yen.
However, SoftBank was down 2.20 percent at 9,985 yen, after its US wireless unit Sprint and T-Mobile announced over the weekend they had called off merger talks.
T-Mobile, an affiliate of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint are the third and fourth largest US wireless operators, respectively.
Together, the pair would have had 131 million subscribers, virtually matching second-ranked AT&T and posing stiff competition to market leader Verizon Communications.
The dollar traded at 114.22 yen in early Asian trade, up from 114.05 yen in New York late Friday.
In US trade Friday, all three indices ended at records with the Nasdaq gaining the most and the Dow notching its 56th record high of 2017.
© Agence France-Presse
