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Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened stronger on Wednesday, following New York shares higher on renewed optimism over North American trade talks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which rose for the sixth straight day on Tuesday, added another 0.16% or 36.92 points to 22 850.39 in early trade while the broader Topix index rose by 0.23% or 3.96 points to 1 735.59.
"Worries over US acceleration of interest hikes and trade war have eased, contributing to rises in stock prices" both in New York and Tokyo, Rakuten Securities chief strategist Masayuki Kubota said in a commentary.
US and Mexican trade officials struck a bargain on Monday, while US Federal Reserve chief last week calmed investor nerves by signalling the central bank did not expect to accelerate interest rate increases.
But Kubota added: "As those worries have just eased, not gone, I don't believe stock prices will continue to rise unchecked."
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq moved fractionally higher on Tuesday, posting their third straight record closes as investors grew increasingly bullish on North American trade talks.
As Washington and Ottawa resumed trade talks on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would only sign a new trade pact that was good for his country.
The dollar was at ¥111.26 compared with ¥111.25 in New York on Tuesday afternoon.
Panasonic, which supplies batteries to Tesla, rose 0.84% to ¥1 368 although the electric carmaker continued its fall in New York after CEO Elon Musk's decision last week to jettison plans to take the company private.
Banks were higher, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial up 1.20% at ¥682.3 and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial up 0.56% at ¥4 426.
