TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed slightly higher Monday on late bargain-hunting while investors remained cautious about a US government shutdown.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index inched up 8.27 points to 23,816.33 while the broader Topix index was 0.12 percent, or 2.18 points, higher at 1,891.92.
The Nikkei opened lower on investor caution as the yen held gains against the dollar after the US government shutdown.
"But investors bought on dips in the last minutes of trading, which sent the Nikkei index to positive territory at the close," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP.
Investor appetite has been strong recently with the Nikkei hitting a 26-year high last week, feeding off a global rally.
In Washington, lawmakers failed to reach a stop-gap deal by Saturday -- the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump's inauguration -- that would have kept the government running.
"Markets had been travelling last week with an expectation that a shutdown would be avoided," said Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank.
"Now that it hasn't, it's hard not to believe this will accentuate the weaker US dollar theme that has been prevalent so far in 2018," he said in a note.
The dollar traded at 110.80 yen Monday afternoon, slightly up from 110.77 yen in New York on Friday but down from the levels above 111 yen seen last week.
Investors are focusing on the results of monetary policy meetings in Japan and Europe later this week, dealers said.
In Tokyo, Sony rose 1.08 percent to 5,572 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported over the weekend that it planned to boost profits from its TV business in the coming years by shifting to high-end models.
Japan Display was 2.14 percent higher at 238 yen after initially soaring 9.0 percent at the open following a report by Jiji Press news agency that Apple was planning to use the Japanese firm's new LCDs in a new iPhone model.
Automakers came under pressure due to the strong yen. Toyota fell 0.77 percent to 7,679 yen while Honda was down 0.57 percent at 3,980 yen.
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