TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday, propped up by a weaker yen and investors buying on dips ahead of central bank decisions in the US and Japan.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.60 percent or 128.95 to 21,745.75 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.50 percent or 7.84 points at 1,576.41.

"Buying opportunities emerged after drops over the past two days," said Seiichi Suzuki, senior market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.

"Additionally, the yen did not appreciate against the dollar despite expectations of a US rate cut," he told AFP as the dollar was trading at 108.91 yen against 108.77 yen in New York on Monday afternoon.

Some major companies' earnings results were also lacklustre but the market has been resilient, prompting those who had sold earlier to buy back, Suzuki added.

Okasan Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito said investors would find it difficult to trade aggressively on Tuesday ahead of events that could sway markets.

US Federal Reserve policymakers will start a two-day meeting later Tuesday amid expectations that they would move for the first interest rate cut in a decade.

In Shanghai, US and Chinese negotiators meet on Tuesday to resurrect trade talks between the world's two biggest economies.

The Bank of Japan is to wrap up its policy meeting on Tuesday with no policy change expected.

Investors are also waiting for US jobs data due out on Friday as they look for clues on the health of the world's biggest economy.

Japan's government released a raft of economic data before the opening bell but they hardly provided trading pegs.

The jobless rate slipped to 2.3 percent in June from 2.4 percent in May while factory output fell by 3.6 percent from May.

Automakers were broadly higher with Toyota rising 0.45 percent at 7,180 yen.

Sony rallied 0.94 percent to 5,919 yen while Nintendo fell 0.64 percent to 40,060 yen before both firms announce April-June results later Tuesday.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Press), 2019

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