TOKYO :Japanese shares rose 0.26 percent on Monday, boosted by a decline in the yen and following a rally on Wall Street at the end of last week, brokers said.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange increased 26.31 points to close at 10,109.87. The Topix index of all first-section shares gained 0.20 percent, or 1.70 points, to 856.05.
The market was supported by a fall in the yen after a business confidence survey among manufacturers came in weaker than expected, while upbeat US economic data also lifted spirits, brokers said.
The dollar rose to 83.05 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 82.85 yen in New York late Friday. The euro bought 110.74 yen, up from 110.55 yen in New York, while fetching $1.3338 against $1.3336.
On the final trading day of the first quarter Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.50 percent to 13,212.04, with the blue-chip index up 8.1 percent over the three months.
Helping sentiment were fresh data showing that US consumer spending picked up pace in February, surging a better-than-expected 0.8 percent from January.
The gains also followed rises on European markets after eurozone finance ministers agreed to boost their firewall against future debt crises to about 800 billion euros.
But a worse-than-expected Bank of Japan quarterly Tankan survey limited any further upside for the Tokyo bourse, says Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
Shortly before the opening bell, the BoJ announced that business confidence among major Japanese manufacturers remained unchanged at minus four in March with economists expecting a better reading of minus one.
"It's a lukewarm reading," Hirano told Dow Jones Newswires.
Nomura Securities senior strategist Juichi Wako also said that despite some encouraging data from China and the United States over the weekend, "concern over a global slowdown remains unchanged"
Unexpected strength in China's official purchasing managers index released Sunday buoyed China-linked names. Komatsu was up 1.18 percent to end at 2,387 yen with Hitachi Construction Machinery up 2.67 percent at 1,880 yen. TDK Corp. rose 2.34 percent at 4,800 yen following a Nikkei business daily report that the firm would terminate output of general-purpose Blu-ray discs at a Japanese factory this year and shift production to China.
Shares in electronics giant Sharp slipped 0.82 percent to 599 yen following a report that the struggling firm asked its labour union about cutting employees' monthly wages.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.