TOKYO: Tokyo stocks rose 0.41 percent Wednesday morning as investors eyed the outcome of a Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy meeting and remarks later in the day from US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 84.28 points to 20,469.61 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 0.38 percent, or 6.20 points, to 1,644.91.
Tokyo rose on a positive lead from Wall Street with investors looking to the BoJ as it wraps up a two-day meeting, although few analysts expect the central bank to expand its massive monetary easing campaign until later this year.
Yellen was on Wednesday to make her twice-yearly testimony to Congress on monetary policy and the state of the world s largest economy.
Following a weak batch of US retail sales data, investors are keen to see if an interest rate hike was still on track for this year.
In recent months some analysts have pushed the forecast for a hike from September to December, and beyond.
“With US retail sales falling short of expectations, investors will be waiting for Janet Yellen s speech to gauge the situation for US rates and we could easily see some profit taking” in Japanese markets, Hiroichi Nishi, a manager at SMBC Nikko Securities, told Bloomberg News.
In share trading, Sony fell 0.63 percent to 3,463 yen, Toyota climbed 0.52 percent to 8,244 yen while mobile carrier SoftBank was up 0.54 percent to 7,047 yen.
On Asian forex markets, the dollar edged up to 123.47 yen from 123.38 yen in New York.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.42 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 0.45 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.66 percent.
