Tokyo stocks open higher on US rallies helped by Fed

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday tracking gains on Wall Street as investors welcomed the US Federal Reserve's pledge to continue its easy-money policies.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.22 percent or 363.58 points at 30,277.91 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.76 percent or 14.98 points to 1,999.01.

"Japanese shares are supported by US market rallies" following the Fed's announcement it will keep the current monetary easing policy until the end of 2023, Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said in a commentary.

The US central bank showed an optimistic view about the outlook for the American economy, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned a full recovery remains far off.

The dollar fetched 108.93 yen in early Asian trade, against 108.82 yen in New York late Wednesday.

In Tokyo, Panasonic was trading up 1.12 percent at 1,395 yen after it said it will sell all the shares of its European disposable battery units to German asset management group Aurelius.

Toshiba was up 1.07 percent at 3,780 yen as it held an extraordinary general shareholders meeting to vote on proposals by overseas hedge funds.

Z Holdings was down 0.74 percent at 606.5 yen after its group online chat firm Line said some customer information was leaked to its Chinese technicians.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.6 percent at 33,015.37.