TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Tokyo shares opened higher Friday, led by the technology and car sectors, as a modest weakening of the yen in overnight trade helped ease fears about the earnings of exporters.
Technology stocks found support from the better-than-expected second quarter earnings reported by US computer maker, Dell Inc, on Thursday.
Dell said it earned 32 cents per share for the quarter to August 3. The result beat the consensus estimate of 30 cents per share from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
At 9.51 am, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average was up 155.51 points, or 1.0 percent, at 16,309.33.
The broader Topix index was up 10.84 points, or 0.7 percent, at 1,579.07.
Japan's July industrial output, consumer price index and jobs data, released before the opening bell, were broadly in line with market expectations and had little impact on early trade.
Industrial output in July tumbled a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent from June, after a powerful earthquake on July 16 in central Japan paralyzed car production for days. It was the fourth fall in five months.
The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile prices of fresh food but includes energy prices, dropped 0.1 percent in July from a year earlier, declining for the sixth straight month.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in July, the lowest level in more than nine years, after coming in at 3.7 percent in June.
'The yen's weakening to around 116 to the dollar, coupled with Dell's upbeat results and a relatively firm performance by Nasdaq gave investors an incentive to buy technology stocks,' said Kauhiro Takahashi, an equities manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC. The Nasdaq edged up overnight, while the other key indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, both weakened.
Among exporters, Sony rose 170 yen, or 3.2 percent, to 5,460 while Matsushita Electric Industrial gained 27 yen, or 1.4 percent, to 1,993.
Toyota Motor advanced 80 yen, or 1.2 percent, to 6,600 as Honda Motor gained 40 yen, or 1.1 percent, to 3,700.
Nippon Paper Group and Rengo both rose on a report that the two paper producers will integrate their production of cardboard next spring, reducing annual capacity by nearly 10 percent, amid dwindling domestic demand. Nippon Paper was up 3,000 yen, or 0.8 percent, at 380,000, with Rengo up 35 yen, or 5.2 percent, at 707.
Yoshinoya D&C slipped 2,000 yen, or 1.1 percent, to 188,000 after the operator of beef-bowl restaurants said Thursday it will boost its equity interest in Gyushige Dream System, which operates Korean-style beef barbecue restaurants. It will also buy Chinese noodle restaurants from Ramen Ichiban Honbu in a bid to diversify its business profile.
(1 US dollar = 116.01 yen)
yumiko.nishitani@thomson.com
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