Tokyo stocks open higher

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday, tracking gains on Wall Street, with investors focusing on a Federal Reserve meeting this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.72 percent, or 207.59 points, at 29,156.32 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.62 percent, or 12.19 points, to 1,966.21.

"The market is closely watching FOMC," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP, referring to a meeting of the US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee.

Concerns are growing that the Fed could be forced to reduce or "taper" its bond-buying scheme, or lift interest rates earlier than planned, to prevent the economy from overheating.

Investors largely welcomed the results of the weekend summit of G7 leaders in Britain.

"But the communique was still within expectations and not significant enough to impact the market," Horiuchi said.

G7 leaders on Sunday vowed to start delivering one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines and to step up action on climate change, in a US-led summit call to arms that also took on China and Russia.

The dollar changed hands at 109.70 yen in early Asian trade against 109.66 in New York late Friday.

Toshiba gained 1.82 percent to 4,730 yen in early trade after it dropped a bid to reelect two board directors after an independent probe revealed the firm sought government help to influence a boardroom vote proposed by activist shareholders.

"Investors are paying attention to Toshiba's news conference this afternoon," Horiuchi said.

Toyota rose 0.88 percent to 9,948 yen but Sony lost 0.23 percent to 10,835 yen.