Tokyo stocks close higher after US gains

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks finished higher on Tuesday, snapping a three-day losing streak and tracking gains on Wall Street, as Japanese markets resumed trade after a long weekend.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 1.88 percent, or 420.30 points, to end at 22,750.24, while the broader Topix index gained 2.54 percent, or 39.22 points, to 1,585.96.

"Tokyo shares are up following rallies on the Dow and after three days of losses in Tokyo," said Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, adding that they were also boosted by gains on the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3 percent and the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent. But the tech-rich Nasdaq was down 0.4 percent as investors eyed uncertain data and an elusive deal on a new emergency spending package.

Japanese markets have been stagnating since June due to "opposing factors", Rakuten Securities chief strategist Masayuki Kubota said in a note.

"The development of vaccines against the coronavirus has been progressing faster than expected but infections are spreading in the US, Europe and Japan," he said.

"US President (Donald) Trump is also adopting a tough stance against China," with measures against TikTok and WeChat, he said.

In Tokyo trading, SoftBank Group dropped 2.45 percent to 6,361 yen before announcing its financial results.

The telecoms and investment giant said after the closing bell that its quarterly net profit to June rose 11.9 percent to $12 billion.

Automakers were higher, with Honda surging 6.37 percent to 2,710.5 yen, Nissan jumping 6.36 percent to 406.3 yen, and Toyota rising 3.95 percent to 7,150 yen.

Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing was up 1.01 percent to 59,630 yen while Sony edged up 0.14 percent to 8,537 yen.

The dollar traded at 106.15 yen in Asian trade, against 105.95 yen in New York late Monday.