TOKYO: Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 index opened lower on Wednesday as investors evaluated the latest US data and awaited key jobs numbers due later this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.34 percent or 98.24 points at 28,716.10 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.23 percent or 4.47 points at 1,930.65.

"Japanese shares are seen weighed down by subdued trade in the US despite better-than-expected... manufacturing data," Okasan Online Securities said.

Investors are now awaiting US jobs data later this week and are bargain-hunting individual shares in the meanwhile, it added.

Wall Street stocks finished little changed as renewed concerns about higher interest rates offset strong manufacturing data and a rally in petroleum-linked shares.

The dollar fetched 109.52 yen in early Asian trade, against 109.47 yen in New York late Tuesday.

In Tokyo, SoftBank Group was down 1.25 percent at 8,060 yen, Olympus was off 2.92 percent at 2,297 yen, and chip-testing equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron was off 0.58 percent at 48,400 yen.

But Toyota was up 1.05 percent at 9,522 yen and Sony was up 0.23 percent at 10,855 yen.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.1 percent at 34,575.31, while the broad-based closed down 0.10 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq finished down 0.1 percent.