Tokyo: Stocks open 0.27% higher

[TOKYO] Tokyo stocks opened 0.27 per cent higher on Thursday after the dollar jumped against the yen on a slight bullish turn by the US Federal Reserve.

The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 42.59 points to 15,596.50 at the start.

Shares in Nintendo soared 7.33 per cent to 11,935.0 yen in the first few minutes of trade after the videogame giant announced its first-half net profit jumped as a sharply weaker yen boosted its bottom line.

On Wednesday the US Fed, after a two-day meeting, made no unexpected policy changes, announcing the wind-up of its quantitative easing stimulus programme while keeping in place plans to maintain ultra-low interest rates well into 2015.

But a shift to a more optimistic assessment of the labour market, after having shown doubts about gains all year, showed a "hawkish" turn by policymakers of the Federal Open Market committee, analysts said, bolstering the dollar.

The greenback was at 108.84 yen early Thursday, slightly down from 108.90 yen in New York Wednesday afternoon but sharply up from 108.12 yen in Tokyo earlier Wednesday.

The euro bought US$1.2637 and 137.47 yen against US$1.2634 and 137.60 yen in US trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.18 per cent.

AFP