TOKYO: Tokyo stocks rose Thursday as a slide in the yen buoyed exporters including Toyota and Nissan while banks also rallied ahead of a key US jobs report.
The dollar traded at 103.35 yen, down from 103.43 yen in New York but still around one-month highs on increasing expectations for a US interest rate hike before the end of the year.
A weaker yen lifts Japanese exporters’ profitability and tends to stoke buying of their shares.
“The market is enjoying the yen’s move to the 103 per dollar level after pricing in concerns over corporate earnings with the yen trading around 100 per dollar,” Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management, told Bloomberg News.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.23 percent, or 39.44 points, to close at 16,926.84, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares firmed 0.59 percent, or 7.84 points, to 1,337.38.
The US labour department is due to release its August employment report Friday and a healthy reading will strengthen the case for tighter borrowing costs.
Investors are betting the Federal Reserve could move sooner rather than later on raising rates, following hawkish remarks last week from its boss Janet Yellen and her vice chair Stanley Fischer.
Higher rates tend to lift the dollar against other currencies.
Toyota advanced 0.74 percent to 6,284 yen and Nissan rose 1.63 percent to 1,031.5 yen.
Bank giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group jumped 1.76 percent to 574 yen while rival Mizuho Financial Group rose 0.95 percent to 181.4 yen.
Sony, however, was down 0.75 percent at 3,300 yen, with investors unmoved by its $385 million purchase of India’s channel Ten Sports.
