TOKYO: Tokyo share prices were almost flat in opening trade on Monday after Wall Street closed solidly higher last week despite central bank chief Ben Bernanke's "no new stimulus -- yet" message.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 12.91 points or 0.15 percent at 8,784.87 after the first 15 minutes of trading, having opened up 0.05 percent.
In New York on Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 134.72 points (1.21 percent) to 11,284.54, shrugging off the Bernanke speech and focusing on his statement that growth should pick up in the second half of the year.
Bernanke offered no new stimulus measures in his much-awaited speech at a central bankers' conference, but said the US Federal Reserve still had a range of monetary tools that could help the economy.
He also said he expected US growth in the second half of the year to improve after a first half in which expansion in the world's largest economy was nearly stagnant.
The dollar bought $1.4483 in early Tokyo trade, a shade lower than $1.4490 in New York late Friday.
Against the Japanese currency, the dollar edged up to 76.79 yen from 76.65 yen. The dollar firmed against the Swiss franc, rising to 0.8090 francs from 0.8063.
The Nikkei's reaction to Bernanke's speech is likely to be limited as its contents were largely in line with expectations and already priced into the market, said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
As the Japanese ruling party is to elect Monday a new leader and ultimately determine the country's next prime minister, Ishiguro noted such political outcomes historically have yielded little market impact.
But he said the reaction may be negative if industry minister Banri Kaieda wins, as he has hinted at nullifying a policy accord with the major opposition parties including a review over child allowance payouts.
Such a result "would take reconstruction efforts and the economy one step back," Ishiguro told Dow Jones Newsrires.
He added that former foreign minister Seiji Maehara is the market's favourite as he is least likely to raise taxes near-term and is seen most capable of forging cross-party ties.
No candidate is expected to win a majority in the first round of vote at the the five-way race of the Democratic Party of Japan, which would lead to a run-off contest.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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