TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened sharply higher on Friday with sentiment boosted by gains on Wall Street and a weak yen.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 1.15 percent or 274.77 points to 24,071.51 in early trade while the Topix index was up 1.02 percent or 18.41 points at 1,818.52.
The bullish opening came after Wall Street stocks advanced and the dollar rose on confidence in the US economy.
“Buying will likely beat selling after US stocks rebounded… Investors will likely hunt exporter stocks given the yen has weakened against the dollar,” it said in a commentary.
A cheaper yen brightens outlooks for exporters as it inflates their overseas profits when repatriated.
The dollar was changing hands at 113.39 yen, unchanged from New York Thursday afternoon but up from the mid-112 yen range seen when Tokyo markets closed the previous day.
SBI added Tokyo trading could slow later Friday as the day marks the closure of the week, month and April-September first half of business year for Japanese companies.
In individual stocks trade, IT investor SoftBank Group jumped 3.15 percent to 11,305 yen, Sony went up 2.45 percent to 6,828 yen and Nintendo climbed 1.18 percent to 41,310 yen.
Panasonic, which supplies battery cells to electric carmaker Tesla Motors, fell 1.38 percent to 1,318.5 yen.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Tesla CEO Elon Musk with securities fraud, alleging he had misled investors last month in tweets about taking the company private.
© Agence France-Presse