Tokyo's benchmark index snapped a six-day losing streak Thursday, supported by a stable yen and modest gains on Wall Street with investor focus shifting to upcoming corporate earnings announcements. The Nikkei 225 index, which the previous day fell for a sixth straight session, gained 1.68 percent or 387.82 points to close at 23,486.11, while the broader Topix index was up 1.84 percent or 33.73 points at 1,870.44. The dollar fetched 109.47 yen in Asian afternoon trade, up from 109.27 yen in New York.
"Investors bought on dips as market sentiment improved thanks to a stable yen and gains on Wall Street," said Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. "But the rebound was still not strong enough to continue pushing the Nikkei index in the short term," Sato told AFP. On Wednesday, Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher on optimism about strong earnings and upbeat economic data, with the Dow closing up 0.3 percent.
In Tokyo, Fujifilm surged 12.12 percent to 4,698 yen a day after it announced 10,000 job cuts by March 2020 at its Fuji Xerox subsidiary while purchasing its US partner Xerox. Nintendo rose 0.52 percent to 48,220 yen after the game giant raised its annual net profit forecast by more than 40 percent to 120 billion yen ($1.1 billion). However, messaging app operator Line dropped 3.48 percent to 4,990 yen after a brokerage downgraded its evaluation of the shares. Earnings reports due this week include Nippon Steel, Takeda and Sony.
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