TOKYO: Late bargain hunting squeezed Tokyo stocks just into positive territory on Friday, with the main index closing up 0.06 percent after profit taking had sent the market down earlier in the day.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 6.55 points to close at 10,129.83, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 3.12 points or 0.36 percent at 866.73.
"Investors are reversing their positions," Monex Inc. chief strategist Takashi Hiroki told Dow Jones Newswires, noting that bellwether exporters were broadly lower after rallying Thursday.
But moderate bargain-hunting emerged in late trade, sending the benchmark Nikkei index over the line into the positive territory before the closing bell.
The dollar bought 83.45 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, slightly down from 83.49 yen in New York late Thursday and well below the 84.13 yen seen a day earlier. The euro was at 109.23 yen, flat from New York but down from 109.59 a day earlier.
Honda Motor fell 0.60 percent to 3,275 yen, but Sony rose 0.54 percent to 1,832 yen.
Hitachi rose 2.45 percent to 501 yen after it late Thursday revised upward its net profit forecast by 40 percent for the financial year to March.
Nomura Holdings rose 1.00 percent to 404 yen despite a Moody's downgrade of its long-term debt rating. US stocks posted modest gains Thursday as investors digested a batch of data that suggested the recovery in the world's biggest economy is picking up steam.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44 percent at 13,252.76.
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