TOKYO, Dec 9 — Tokyo stocks rose for a third consecutive session today, extending rallies on Wall Street as investors closely watched key events this week including central bank meetings and the UK elections.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.33 per cent, or 76.30 points, to close at 23,430.70, while the broader Topix index was up 0.51 per cent, or 8.71 points, at 1,722.07.
Tokyo shares opened higher, tracking rallies in New York where stocks surged on Friday following a strong US jobs report.
“Shares sustained the momentum throughout the day” although profit-taking prevented further gains, said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.
Investors are eyeing the two-day US Federal Reserve meeting through Wednesday and the British general election on Thursday, dealers said.
Traders also remain on edge ahead of December 15 — the day on which the US is due to impose tariffs on more goods from China.
“Investors refrained from active trading ahead of major events,” Horiuchi told AFP.
A partial trade pact with China remains close at hand, a top White House economic aide said Friday, days before another round of US tariffs is due to take effect.
“The deal is still close,” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told CNBC. “It is probably even a wee bit closer than when I first made that statement in November.”
Kudlow was guarded in discussing the tariff round due to hit around US$160 billion in Chinese imports — including popular consumer items like mobile phones — beginning December 15.
“There’s no arbitrary deadline here,” he said, adding that the ultimate decision was Trump’s alone.
Should the December 15 tariffs take effect, virtually all the merchandise the United States imports annually from China will be covered by punitive tariffs.
But the market remained somewhat positive on the prospects of the US-China trade deal, as it “continues to price in peak tariff and a probable rollback of the last tranche of tariffs imposed in September,” Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader, said in a note.
The dollar fetched ¥108.58 (RM4.16) in Asian afternoon trade, against ¥108.56 in New York on Friday.
In Tokyo, exporters were higher, with Nissan trading up 1.85 per cent at ¥687.6 and game giant Nintendo up 3.01 per cent at ¥45,080.
Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of clothing giant Uniqlo, was up 0.59 per cent at ¥64,300, while SoftBank Group gained 1.19 per cent to ¥4,308. — AFP
