TOKYO: Tokyo shares rose Thursday morning on the back of a four percent surge the previous day, as upbeat US data and hopes for more central bank stimulus offset a stronger yen.
The Japanese market's climb came as higher oil prices helped push Wall Street onwards following a better-than-expected US jobs report for February.
"Globally it's becoming risk-on," Ryoma Sugihara, head of equity flow sales at Societe Generale in Tokyo, told Bloomberg News, referring to an uptick in investor sentiment.
"We're starting to see the bottom in US manufacturing, oil is rebounding, China is stabilising."
Investor spirits got a lift this week as the People's Bank of China late Monday announced it was cutting its reserve requirement for banks -- aimed at boosting lending and propping up growth in the world's number two economy.
There is now growing speculation that the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan -- which shocked markets in January by unveiling a below-zero interest rate policy - may usher in more policy moves to boost their respective economies.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.89 percent, or 148.53 points, to 16,895.08 by the lunch break.
The broader Topix index of all first-section shares gained 1.08 percent, or 14.54 points, to 1,364.15.
Toyota rose 0.92 percent to 6,153 yen, mobile carrier SoftBank jumped 1.19 percent to 5,796 yen and Sony added 0.86 percent to 2,513 yen.
The dollar edged higher to 113.78 yen from 113.46 yen in New York, although it was still down from levels in Tokyo earlier Wednesday.
The strength of the yen is a key barometer for the profitability of Japanese exporters, and impacts demand for their shares.
On Wall Street, the Dow gained 0.2 percent, while the S&P 500 was up 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.3 percent.
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