Tokyo: Stocks close higher for third straight session

[TOKYO] Tokyo stocks rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, supported by a solid performance on Wall Street and hopes for progress in US-China trade talks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.60 per cent, or 128.84 points, to close at 21,431.49 while the broader Topix index was up 0.43 per cent, or 6.95 points, at 1,613.47.

"Investors were encouraged by growing expectations that the US-China trade talks will make progress," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP.

Tokyo shares opened higher after Wall Street stocks scraped out narrow gains on Tuesday on strong Walmart earnings and continued optimism over the trade talks which resumed in Washington aimed at ending a damaging tariff war between the economic superpowers.

US President Donald Trump said the talks were "going very well" but were "very complex".

The dollar firmed to 110.80 yen in Asian afternoon trade from 110.58 yen in New York Tuesday afternoon.

In individual stocks trade, Honda gained 0.63 per cent to 3,033 yen after announcing it would shut down its British plant.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group jumped 3.63 per cent to 10,400 yen as Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo casual wear brand, edged up 0.07 per cent at 50,340 yen.

Mitsui and Co gained 1.66 per cent to 1,803 yen and Mitsubishi Corp rose 1.91 per cent to 3,254 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported that leading Russian company Novatek asked the Japanese trading houses to invest in a major Arctic LNG project.

Fujitsu dropped 3.25 per cent to 7,518 yen after announcing plans to report extra losses related to its early retirement programme.

AFP