Tokyo stocks open higher on hopes for vaccines, stimulus

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street gains on hopes for additional stimulus and as Japan prepared to start its coronavirus vaccination campaign.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.17 percent, or 50.72 points, at 29,439.22 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.14 percent, or 2.73 points, to 1,926.68.

"Japanese shares are seen supported by US gains," Okasan Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito said.

Japan hopes to begin vaccinating selected healthcare workers against Covid-19 next week.

This is supporting the market along with hopes for further US economic stimulus and the positive effect of Japan's own virus rescue package, analysts said.

SoftBank Group was down 0.32 percent at 1,414 yen on profit-taking after it said net profit rocketed to $11.1 billion in the third quarter, as stock rallies and asset sales helped solidify its recovery.

Renesas rallied 3.49 percent to 1,245 yen after it confirmed late Monday it will acquire its German-British competitor Dialog, a semiconductor specialist and Apple supplier, in a $5.9 billion deal.

The dollar fetched 105.23 yen in early Asian trade, against 105.22 yen in New York.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.8 percent at 31,385.76.