Tokyo stocks close higher ahead of US data

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed higher Friday following a strong rally on Wall Street, with investors awaiting US jobs data due later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.41 percent, or 146.56 points, to 36,158.02, while the broader Topix index added 0.22 percent, or 5.64 points, to 2,539.68.

“The Japanese market was higher, particularly in value-added semiconductor stocks,” Iwai Cosmo Securities said.

The rise comes after “the positive results of Meta and Amazon led to a further rise in after-hours trading in addition to the substantial gains in the US market”.

The dollar fetched 146.40 yen, virtually unchanged from its New York level on Thursday.

The release of the US non-farm payrolls report later in the day will be closely followed, with investors hoping for a soft reading that would give the Federal Reserve a little room to cut interest rates earlier.

Markets globally took a hit when the central bank on Wednesday warned it was unlikely to reduce borrowing costs in March, as had been widely expected just a few weeks ago.

Chip-linked shares were higher in Tokyo, with Advantest soaring 3.26 percent to 6,137 yen and Tokyo Electron gaining 1.66 percent to 28,100 yen. Nintendo jumped 2.00 percent to 8,476 yen and Sony rose 0.59 percent to 14,475 yen.

But Aozora Bank plunged nearly 16 percent to 2,150 yen after the lender forecast a loss because of bad property loans in the United States, having dived 27.4 percent the previous day.