TOKYO: Tokyo stocks rose 0.51 percent Friday morning, picking up a strong lead from Wall Street where the S&P 500 surged to another record close.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange added 99.67 points to 19,669.91 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 0.40 percent, or 6.38 points, to 1,597.87.
In New York the broad-based S&P 500 bolted to a fresh record-high close Thursday, led by strong gains in Apple, Facebook and other technology stocks. It rose 1.08 percent to end at 2,121.10.
The Dow gained 1.06 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.39 percent.
In Tokyo, a generally upbeat earnings season was drawing to a close with Japan’s biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ reportedly on track to report a record annual profit later in the day.
But the lender’s shares slipped 0.24 percent to 842.0 yen by the break.
