Tokyo: Tokyo stocks rebounded Monday with the benchmark Nikkei up 0.53 percent by the break, after Wall Street rallied on Friday while investors shrugged off a drop in Japanese factory output.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which fell for the second consecutive day on Friday, tacked on 101.58 points to 19,387.21, while the Topix index of all first-section shares inched up 0.08 percent, or 1.30 points, to 1,554.08.
Tokyo`s rebound came as the dollar ticked up against the yen, a plus for Japanese exporters, but analysts said the Topix`s weak start could foreshadow a temporary downturn in the market.
"We`re already seeing selling before the end of the financial year," Yutaka Miura, a technical analyst at Mizuho Securities, told Bloomberg News.
"We expect shares to reach a bottom over today and tomorrow and start rising again in the new fiscal year."
The Japanese fiscal year begins on April 1 with firms set to report their full-year results from later next month.
On Monday, investors appeared little affected by news that Japanese factory output fell by a worse-than-expected 3.4 percent in February, adding to the gloom enveloping the world`s third largest economy as it struggles to overcome last year`s sales tax rise.
In share trading, market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, rose 2.87 percent to 47,550.0 yen.
Factory robotics maker Fanuc was up 0.57 percent to 26,330.0 yen, mobile carrier SoftBank gained 0.48 percent to 6,975.0 yen, Toyota fell 1.01 percent to 8,395.0 yen and drinks giant Asahi was down 0.92 percent to 3,883.0 yen.
High-end furniture maker Otsuka Kagu dropped 6.83 percent to 1,459.0 yen. On Friday, a bitter family feud at the company took a dramatic turn after its founder lost a battle to oust his daughter as president in a highly charged shareholder vote.
That followed weeks of speculation about who would prevail in the battle over the future of the struggling chain.
In Asian forex markets, the dollar crept up to 119.23 yen, from 119.14 yen in New York late Friday.
On Wall Street Friday, the Dow added 0.19 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.24 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq was up 0.57 percent.
