Japanese shares add 1.00pc after Wall Street gains

TOKYO: Japanese shares gained Monday as they played catch-up with rises on Wall Street after the US Congress extended a payroll tax holiday.

The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 1.00 percent or 84.18 points to 8,479.34 amid thin holiday trade. The Topix index of all first section shares gained 0.46 percent or 3.32 points to 726.44.

Tokyo shares tracked surges on Friday in New York, after US economic data was upbeat and US lawmakers moved to extend temporary tax breaks and unemployment benefits, ending earlier Republican threats to block the moves.

Exporter shares rose after US new home sales rebounded and durable goods orders came out better than expected.

The absence for the rest of the year of scheduled eurozone events that could aggravate market fears about the region's debt woes lifted sentiment somewhat, said Hideyuki Ishiguro, supervisor at investment strategy at Okasan Securities.

But the Nikkei could still run out of steam with participants expected to take a wait-and see approach until fund mangers return from the holiday in the US market, said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.

New York and other major Western markets were closed Monday for the Christmas holiday.

"They must have trimmed long positions before the break," Hirano told Dow Jones Newswires. "Given firm US economic indicators, they may start buying back once they return."

Among major exporters, Toyota added 0.64 percent to 2,512 yen. Sony rose 1.60 percent to 1,394 yen. Construction equipment maker Komatsu surged 0.77 percent to 1,831 yen.