TOKYO: Tokyo stocks inched up 0.18 percent Monday morning with investors retreating to the sidelines during the Lunar New Year holiday and after a mixed performance on Wall Street last week.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which ended last week at an 11-week high on easing worries over the European debt crisis, edged up 15.80 points to 8,782.16 by the break.
The Topix index of all first-section shares was up 0.26 percent, or 1.93 points, at 757.40.
Trading was subdued due to relatively stable currency markets and several regional markets being closed due to the week-long holiday, brokers said.
"The wait-and-see investor mood is likely to continue," said Mizuho Securities senior technical analyst Yutaka Miura, tipping the Nikkei index to trade around Friday's close of 8,766.36 for the rest of the day.
Market players in Asia were also waiting for overseas reactions to eurozone-related events, including a European finance ministers' meeting due later Monday, he told Dow Jones Newswires.
The euro bought $1.2889 and 99.32 yen in Tokyo midday trade, down from $1.2933 and 99.61 yen in New York late Friday. The dollar was almost flat, trading at 77.05 yen.
Olympus, mired in a huge losses cover-up scandal, soared 7.58 percent to 1,290 yen after the Tokyo stock exchange on Friday decided to keep the company's stock listed.
Hitachi fell 0.46 percent to 432 yen after the company said it would stop domestic production of flat-panel televisions and outsource production from October.
The move was expected as electronics makers around the world struggle to make money in the crowded, low-margin TV market. The higher yen has also been squeezing the profits of Japanese exporters.
US blue chips jumped Friday on a batch of strong fourth-quarter earnings, especially from Microsoft and IBM, but disappointing revenues from Google held the tech-heavy Nasdaq index back.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue-chip stocks closed up 0.76 percent to 12,720.48 while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.06 percent to 2,786.70.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.