TOKYO: Tokyo stocks rose 0.51 percent Friday morning, picking up a strong lead from Wall Street where the S&P 500 surged to another record close.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange added 99.67 points to 19,669.91 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 0.40 percent, or 6.38 points, to 1,597.87.
In New York the broad-based S&P 500 bolted to a fresh record-high close Thursday, led by strong gains in Apple, Facebook and other technology stocks. It rose 1.08 percent to end at 2,121.10.
The Dow gained 1.06 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.39 percent.
In Tokyo, a generally upbeat earnings season was drawing to a close with Japan's biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ reportedly on track to report a record annual profit later in the day.
But the lender's shares slipped 0.24 percent to 842.0 yen by the break.
"Companies giving back to shareholders through moves like share buybacks and boosting dividends has increased -- that's supportive for the market," Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments, told Bloomberg News.
Toyota rose 0.37 percent to 8,209.0 yen by the break, Sony climbed 1.94 percent to 3,890.0 yen, while bank giant Mizuho added 0.44 percent to 230.7 yen as it gets set to report earnings later in the day.
Chipmaker Renesas jumped 5.93 percent to 1,000.0 yen -- after soaring as much as 12 percent in early trade -- on a report that US-based Avago was eyeing it as a potential acquisition target.
However, camera giant Nikon dropped 11.2 percent to 1,523.0 yen as it cut its operating profit forecast.
Sharp tumbled 8.50 percent to 183.0 yen after the struggling firm announced it took a 200 billion yen bailout from its banks and will slash its global workforce by about 10 percent in a bid to stay afloat.
In currency markets, the dollar ticked up to 119.38 yen from 119.19 yen in New York.
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