Tokyo's key Nikkei index opens flat

TOKYO: Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 index opened flat on Friday in cautious trade after a modest rally on the Dow on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 2.05 points at 28,956.51 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.18 percent or 3.48 points at 1,953.25.

"Japanese shares are seen moving in a narrow range after the Dow rebounded only slightly in the US market," Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said in a note, adding that trade will be also affected by settlement of futures and options.

The dollar fetched 109.35 yen in early Asian trade against 109.32 yen in New York late Thursday.

Toshiba traded down 1.48 percent at 4,650 yen after a third-party probe said the firm sought help from the industry ministry to swing a boardroom vote proposed by activist shareholders at its last regular annual general meeting.

Japan Post was up 1.62 percent at 920.2 yen after it said it will buy back up to 250 billion yen ($2.3 billion) of shares from the finance ministry.

Chip-linked shares were higher, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest gaining 1.92 percent to 10,100 yen and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron advancing 0.88 percent to 47,990 yen.

Trading houses were among losers, with Itochu trading down 0.56 percent at 3,344 yen, Mitsubishi Corp off 0.75 percent at 3,049 yen and Mitsui & Co. down 0.69 percent at 2,534.5 yen.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.1 percent at 34,466.24, the broad-based S&P closed up 0.5 percent at a fresh record and the tech-rich Nasdaq was up 0.8 percent.