Japanese shares gain on Wall Street strength, robust earnings

TOKYO: Japanese shares were set to climb for a fifth straight session on Thursday, underpinned by solid earnings from domestic companies and overnight strength on Wall Street, although some profit-booking capped those gains.

The Nikkei share average edged up 0.19% to 28,123.67 by 0214 GMT, while the broader Topix 0.19 inched up 1,957.78.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed at record levels after data showed US consumer price increases slowed in July, easing concerns that the Federal Reserve will imminently signal a scaling back of bond purchases.

"It has been a recent pattern that Japanese shares open higher to track the US markets but investors soon sell stocks for profit-taking," said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the investment research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.

"But the market's fundamentals are good as inventors have finally regained confidence in the Japanese corporate outlook."

SMC Corp rose 3.73% after the industrial equipment maker raised its annual operating profit forecast by 15.6% to 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion).

Economically-sensitive stocks tracked gains of their US peers following the passage of a large bipartisan infrastructure package.

Shipping firms gained the most among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry subindexes, with Kawasaki Kisen jumping 8.67%.

Oil explorer Inpex rose 2.25% as oil prices gained.

Kawasaki Kisen was the top gainer on the Nikkei, followed by Nexon Co Ltd, which rose 8.03% and Showa Denko KK , up 6%.

Rakuten Group, a mobile phone services and online shopping mall operator, was the worst performer on the index, falling 3.43% after it widened six-month losses.

Rakuten was followed by Sumco Corp, losing 2.56% and Fujikura Ltd, down by 2.45%.