Asian stocks open higher tracking rallies in US market

March 29, 2019: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, as investors took heart from rallies on Wall Street and a relatively cheap yen against the dollar.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.06 percent or 222.64 points at 21,256.40 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.86 percent or 13.52 points at 1,596.37.

"The rallies in US shares and a relatively cheaper yen is helping the Tokyo market gain," Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.

The dollar fetched 110.62 yen in early Asian trade, unchanged from the level in New York but up from 110.13 yen in Tokyo late Thursday.

Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday following a recovery in 10-year US Treasury yields, after weakness in bond rates in recent sessions raised worries about slowing economic growth.

Japan's closely watched factory output rose modestly in February with unemployment staying at record low levels, official data showed Friday before the opening bell, underscoring the patchy recovery of the world's third largest economy.

SoftBank Group was up 1.99 percent at 10,755 yen, Toyota was up 0.34 percent at 6,536 yen, and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron was up 1.09 percent at 16,200 yen.

Pharmaceuticals firm Daiichi Sankyo surged 16 percent to the day's limit of 5,100 yen at one point, after it announced a tie-up with AstraZeneca for development of a cancer drug. The deal could be worth as much as $6.9 billion, a statement from Daiichi Sankyo said.

On Wall Street, the Dow gained 0.4 percent to close the session at 25,717.46.

On the other hand, Hong Kong shares opened slightly higher Friday morning as well, putting them on course to end the week on a positive note, with attention now on China-US trade talks in Beijing.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.13 percent, or 37.43 points, to 28,812.64.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.19 percent, or 5.74 points, to 3,000.68, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, was marginally higher, inching up 0.28 points to 1,640.00.

(APP)