Tokyo stocks open higher on Wall Street rallies

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday as investors took heart from record closes on Wall Street while awaiting the outcome of a US Federal Reserve meeting later this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.02 percent or 5.28 points at 29,772.25 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.07 percent or 1.30 points to 1,970.03.

"Japanese shares are seen rallying supported by gains in US stocks," senior analyst Yoshihiro Ito of Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.

The US Federal Reserve's "policy decision and new forecasts... are undoubtedly another factor keeping investors a little bit cautious at the start of the new week," Rodrigo Catril, senior strategist at National Australia Bank, said in a note.

The dollar fetched 109.18 yen in early Asian trade, against 109.13 yen in New York late Monday.

In Tokyo, Takeda Pharmaceutical was up 1.29 percent at 4,155 yen, trading house Itochu was up 1.68 percent at 3,569 yen, and chip-testing equipment manufacturer Advantest rallied 3.60 percent to 8,910 yen.

Travel agency HIS was up 3.95 percent at 2,342 yen despite announcing its first quarter operating loss stood at 11.7 billion yen ($100 million), worse than the market consensus of a 9.9 billion yen loss.

On Wall Street, the Dow and S&P again closed at records, as US traders continued to bet Covid-19 vaccines and government stimulus would heal the US economy.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 percent to end at 32,953.46.