TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday, tracking gains on Wall Street as investors monitor developments in Ukraine.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.49 percent or 405.02 points at 27,629.13 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 1.22 percent or 23.60 points to 1,957.34.
Japanese share prices were “supported by the rebound in US shares”, Mizuho Securities said in a note.
The war in Ukraine remains a key market-moving factor, and the country’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky will give an online address to Japan’s parliament on Wednesday evening.
The dollar fetched 121.26 yen in early Asian trade, against 120.82 yen in New York late Tuesday.
Suzuki was up 2.08 percent at 4,229 yen after the automaker announced a tie-up with SkyDrive, a flying car start-up based in central Japan.
Toyota was up 2.12 percent at 2,098.5 yen and Honda was up 1.94 percent at 3,461 yen.
Utilities provider TEPCO was down 3.10 percent after Japan issued its first-ever electricity crunch warning for Tokyo and other regions this week, as power plants hit by a recent earthquake struggled to meet surging demand.
Chip-linked shares were higher with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest up 2.75 percent at 9,350 yen, and Renesas Electronics up 2.38 percent at 1,336 yen.
Toshiba was up 1.51 percent at 4,713 yen ahead of a shareholder meeting on Thursday where a vote will be held on the industrial conglomerate’s plan to split into two.
Kioxia, which was spun off from Toshiba in 2018, said Wednesday it will begin construction of a new facility for the production of 3D flash memory at its plant in Japan.