Tokyo Stocks Open Lower

AFP/APP

Tokyo: Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday after Wall Street shares ended mixed, with investor focus on corporate earnings.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.05 percent, or 19.88 points, at 38,209.23 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.09 percent, or 2.35 points, to 2,725.86.

“The Japanese market is expected to move in a narrow range after the US market closed mixed,” senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama of brokerage Monex said.

“Trade will likely be led by purchases of individual shares in companies that released corporate earnings results,” he said.

The dollar fetched 155.74 yen in early Asian trade, against 155.88 yen in New York on Friday.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.3 percent at 39,512.84 and the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 5,222.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped less than 0.1 percent to 16,340.87.

In Tokyo, Honda was up 3.60 percent at 1,799 yen, after the carmaker logged a record annual profit and announced a major share buyback.

Chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron was up 0.94 percent at 35,330 yen, after it forecast a rise in net profit for the current fiscal year.

Olympus soared 6.42 percent to 2,436 yen after it announced a 31-percent jump in its forecast of operating profit for the current year to March 2025.

SoftBank Group was up 1.89 percent at 8,026 yen ahead of its earnings report due after the closing bell.