Tuesday May 13, 04:36 AM
Tokyo shares end morning higher on Wall Street's gains, weaker yen - UPDATE
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japanese shares ended the morning session higher on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street after a drop in oil prices eased worries about inflation.
A weaker yen also helped lift exporters' sentiment. The dollar was last quoted at 103.81 yen, compared to 103.69 to 103.79 yen in late Monday New York trade.
Investors were also encouraged by pre-opening buy orders from foreign investors, which topped the sell orders, said Hiroichi Nishi, equity chief at Nikko Cordial Securities.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended the morning up 88.49 points or 0.6 percent at 13,831.85,
off a high of 13,868.41.
The broader Topix rose 9.22 points or 0.7 percent to 1,352.01, after hitting a high of 1,355.21.
Gainers outnumbered decliners 786 to 748, with 175 issues unchanged.
Volume was 844 million shares, up from 732 million shares traded on Monday morning.
Some of the earlier gains were offset by caution about the possible impact on the local market of a major earthquake which hit China on Monday, causing deaths of nearly 10,000 according to the latest state media reports.
Overnight, light, sweet crude oil shed $1.73 to settle at $124.23 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hitting a new trading high of $126.40.
Local sentiment was also supported by HSBC Holdings PLC's announcement that its first-quarter earnings were up from a year ago, although the global banking company took a $3.2 billion writedown on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.
The country's largest computer maker Fujitsu Major digital soared 12.2 percent to 766 yen. Digital (Milan: DIB.MI - news) camera maker Nikon (Berlin: NKN.BE - news) surged 8.6 percent to 3,080 yen, major construction machinery maker Komatsu (Berlin: KOM1.BE - news) rose 3.6 percent to 3,210 yen and consumer electronic giant Sony (Munich: 853687 - news) gained 3.2 percent at 4,800 yen. Nissan Motor climbed 2.4 percent to 952 yen.
Pioneer Corp (Munich: 857040 - news) . rallied 7.3 percent to 1,092 yen after the Nikkei (news) newspaper reported that Japanese audio visual equipment maker plans to cut roughly 2,000 jobs by the end of the fiscal 2008 as part of the restructuring of its plasma television operations.
Takeda Pharmaceutical gained 2.8 percent while Nippon Steel (Berlin: NPS.BE - news) declined 1.5 percent to 585 yen.
($1 = 103.81 yen)
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