Tokyo stocks open higher as yen edges lower

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday as a strong US jobs report continued to support the global market while the yen edged lower against the dollar, boosting Japanese exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.36% or 80.58 points to 22 556.52 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.32% or 5.61 points at 1 780.30.

"Stock market investors remain utterly unfazed by the prospects of trade tariffs or even higher interest rates as consecutive monthly payroll numbers continue to support" the comfortable scenario over the global economy for investors, Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia Pacific at Oanda, said in a note to clients.

"Supported by rallies in US shares and a lower yen (against the dollar), Japanese shares are seen testing the upper limit" of their prices, Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.

The dollar fetched ¥109.94 in early Asian trade, up from ¥109.73 in New York late on Monday.

Game giant Nintendo rallied 2.24% to ¥41 380, semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 1.65% to ¥21 210 and display maker Japan Display was up 2.34% at ¥131.

• READ: Tokyo stocks open higher, encouraged by upbeat US data

Toshiba was up 1.00% at ¥302 after it said it will discuss a widely reported plan to sell its PC business to Sharp at a board meeting later on Tuesday.

Sharp rose 2.94% to ¥3 040 in early trade.

Minutes before the opening bell, official data showed that Japan's household spending slipped 1.3% year-on-year in April, the third consecutive monthly decline.

The stocks market barely reacted to the latest data that was nevertheless worse than market expectations of a 0.8% increase.

In the US market on Monday, solid gains in tech stocks drove the Nasdaq to a fresh record, closing up 0.7% at 7 606.46.

The Dow ended up 0.7% while the broader S&P closed 0.5% higher.

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