Tokyo shares end morning with gains

TOKYO: Tokyo shares rose Monday morning, tracking gains on Wall Street as a jump in oil prices lifted energy companies.

The advances extended Friday's gains and provide some respite from the hefty losses suffered Thursday on the back of a crisis engulfing Donald Trump's presidency that has thrown his economic agenda into doubt.

"Higher commodity prices will be positive for energy and materials companies," said Shoji Hirakawa, the chief global strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co.

"Japanese shares had started pricing in the odds of (US President Donald) Trump's possible impeachment, but it seems unlikely there'll be any decisive proof for such a development," he told Bloomberg News.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.30 percent, or 58.48 points, to 19,649.24 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues advanced 0.35 percent, or 5.46 points, to 1,565.19.

Oil explorers followed their US peers higher, with Japan Petroleum up 0.43 percent to 2,287 yen and Inpex rising 1.04 percent to 1,063 yen.

The market also got support from a weaker yen, which increases exporters' profitability.

The dollar rose to 111.47 yen from 111.27 yen in New York on Friday afternoon and 111.23 yen in Asia earlier that day, as market reactions to the latest North Korean missile launch were muted.

US stocks rose on Friday, recovering losses earlier in the week on worries about Trump's future.

In Tokyo make-up giant Shiseido rose 2.80 percent to 3,629 yen after a weekend report in the Nikkei business daily that Japan's cosmetics exports exceeded imports for the first time in 2016.

SoftBank climbed 2.36 percent to 8,577 yen after the mobile carrier said, with Saudi partners, that it has raised nearly $100 billion in pledges to launch a major global fund for long-term, high-tech investments.

Takata soared 16.84 percent to 555 yen, extending a more than 20 percent rise on Friday as four automakers agreed to pay $553 million to settle a US lawsuit over its defective airbags.