TOKYO, April 27 ― Tokyo stocks barely moved at the open today despite fresh records for two indexes on Wall Street, as investors awaited the Bank of Japan's policy decision later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index inched down 0.04 per cent, or 10.81 points, to 29,115.42 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.38 per cent, or 7.20 points, to 1,910.95.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is widely expected to stand pat after a two-day policy meeting that ends later today.

However, the “BoJ's economic projections are looking too optimistic and at risk of downward revision,” said Ray Attrill, senior strategist at National Australia Bank in a note.

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“A fourth Covid wave has now erased hopes for a domestically driven economic recovery” in the second quarter, he said.

“Japan's underwhelming vaccine rollout programme is now threatening the potential for any domestically driven recovery at all in 2021.”

The dollar fetched ¥108.10 (RM4.08) in early Asian trade, against 108.11 in New York late yesterday.

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In Tokyo, Canon was up 2.96 per cent at ¥2,730.5 after the company boosted its full-year operating profit forecast by 25 per cent and said it expects profit to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Sony was down 1.79 per cent at ¥11,490 and Panasonic was off 1.18 per cent at ¥1,298.

Automakers were mixed, with Honda trading down 1.43 per cent at ¥3,243 and Toyota off 0.69 per cent at ¥8,208 while Nissan trading up 0.45 per cent at ¥557.8.

On Wall Street, the tech-rich Nasdaq and the S&P 500 finished at fresh records as large tech companies rallied ahead of earnings later in the week.

The Nasdaq rallied 0.9 per cent and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent to end the day, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2 per cent to 33,981.57. ― AFP