Tokyo stocks up after Trump speech

Tokyo - Tokyo shares rose in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, in a muted reaction to US President Donald Trump's congressional speech which offered few fresh details on his economic growth plans.

Dealers were keen to see if Trump would offer a more specific blueprint on what he has described as a "phenomenal" tax-cut plan and big infrastructure spending, promises that stoked a global equities rally.

But the wide-ranging remarks offered little new on Trump's proposals for the world's top economy.

He pledged $1.0trn in public-private infrastructure spending and "massive" tax cuts for the middle class.

"There was no surprise and nothing concrete," Tomohiro Nishida, dealer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, said of the remarks.

"But there was also no disappointment as he touched upon his key economic policies."

The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 231.10 points, to 19 350.09 in early afternoon trading, after Trump finished his speech.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues rose 14.98 points, to 1 550.21.

Markets got a boost as the dollar strengthened against the Japanese unit to ¥113.40, up slightly from levels earlier in the day and ¥112.75 in New York.

A weaker yen is a plus for shares of Japanese exporters.

In share trading, SoftBank rose 2.59% to ¥8 579 after announcing a fresh $1.7bn investment in US satellite telecom firms OneWeb and Intelsat, which plan to merge.

The deal will give SoftBank, which in December announced it was injecting $1bn into OneWeb, a nearly 40% voting stake in the combined company plus additional non-voting shares.

Sony was up 1.38% to sit at ¥3 526, while Toyota rose 1.02% to ¥6 430 and Honda gained 0.65% to sit at ¥3 512.

Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, rose 1.04% to ¥35 860.