Tokyo's Nikkei rangebound in early trade

TOKYO: Tokyo's blue-chip shares traded in a narrow range Tuesday following another record finish for the Dow, as Washington accelerates its vaccination programme, fuelling hopes for further economic recovery.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index zigzagged from the previous day's close in early trade and was up 0.17 percent, or 48.62 points, to 29,433.14 shortly after the opening bell.

The broader Topix index fell 0.70 percent, or 14.05 points, to 1,979.29.

Shares faced selling on the ex-dividend date near the end of the current fiscal year as they started trading without the value of their next dividend payment.

Investors continued to digest warnings issued Monday from major financial institutions Nomura of Japan and Switzerland's Credit Suisse that they could face significant losses following reports of their exposure to a US fund that liquidated billions in stocks last week.

But the global market did not react strongly to the announcements overnight.

Nomura Holdings headed south at the start but trimmed losses to 2.39 percent, trading at 588.6 yen in early trade.

Financial sector shares will see "nervous trade in the immediate term", Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

"But overall hopes for a general economic recovery are seen providing support for the market," it added.

Investors cheered US President Joe Biden's announcement of additional measures to boost vaccination efforts, stoking hopes for a swift return of economic activities.

They also welcomed news that a giant ship was being removed from the Suez Canal after blocking the key waterway for almost a week.

Shortly before the market opened, the Japanese government announced that the nation's unemployment rate in February stood at 2.9 percent, flat from the previous month.

The dollar bought 109.81 yen, compared with 109.78 yen in New York.

Among major shares, SoftBank Group rose 1.44 percent to 9,211 yen.

Uniqlo-operator Fast Retailing surged 2.88 percent to 88,880 yen. Sony was down 0.77 percent to 11,545 yen, while Toyota dropped 2.19 percent to 8,280 yen.

Chip manufacturer Renesas was down 2.57 percent at 1,177 ahead of an afternoon press conference expected to discuss new details of a fire at one of its plants that threatens to worsen the global semiconductor shortage.

Reports Monday suggested that the fire had created more extensive damage than initially reported, though it is not yet clear whether that will set back the timeline for the firm to recover capacity.