Tokyo stocks up by break, Japan railway soars on debut

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks rose on Tuesday morning as a fall in the yen boosted exporters while Kyushu Railway surged on its trading debut, after one of the year's biggest initial public offerings.

The former state-owned rail company, better known as JR Kyushu, soared as much as 20% to ¥3 120 at one point before settling back to ¥2 922, up 12.4%. The firm raised 416bn yen ($4.0bn) in its IPO.

The broader market was also well up after US and European bourses posted healthy gains, while the yen dropped against the dollar - a plus for Japanese shares - on expectations for higher US interest rates.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 106.73 points, to 17 341.15 by the lunch break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 8.15 points, to 1 375.76.

The dollar was trading at 104.38 yen on Tuesday; up from ¥103.89 a day earlier, after positive US manufacturing data reinforced market expectations for a rate rise.

Japan's latest earnings season gets under way this week with Nintendo and copier maker Canon releasing results on Wednesday.

"With the US economy looking solid and a rate hike by year-end looming in investors' minds, the yen is weakening, and boosting expectations for a recovery in earnings in the second half of the year," Toshihiko Matsuno, a senior strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, told Bloomberg News.

Among major exporters Toyota rose 1.19% to ¥6 027 and Honda was up 1.68% at ¥3 133.