Tokyo stocks open higher with eyes on earnings

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday extending rallies on Wall Street, with investors keeping their focus on earnings reports.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.27 percent or 78.89 points at 28,858.08 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.49 percent or 9.32 points to 1,900.27.

"The Japanese market is seen moving in a narrow range after modest gains in US shares," Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior analyst at Monex, said in a note.

Ichiro Asai, senior strategist of Daiwa Securities, said "this week will see a peak in corporate earnings by major firms, after Sony reported a sound earnings that beat market expectations overall".

Among them are earnings on Wednesday by Toyota, which overtook Volkswagen as top-selling automaker in 2020, he noted.

The dollar fetched 105.45 yen in early Asian trade, against 105.38 yen in New York.

Renesas Electronics dropped 5.05 percent to 1,185 yen after it announced talks with UK-based Dialog Semiconductor over a "potential plan to purchase part or all of its shares at a price of 67.50 euro per share".

Among other shares, telecom and investment giant SoftBank Group was up 3.71 percent at 9,418 yen ahead of its earnings reports after market close.

Construction firm Taisei was up 3.53 percent at 3,670 yen and its rival Obayashi was up 2.93 percent at 947 yen ahead of their earnings reports due later in the day.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.3 percent at 31,148.24.