Tokyo stocks up 0.60% by break

Tokyo stocks rose 0.60 percent Thursday morning, boosted by a weaker yen and gains on Wall Street.

The Nikkei 225 index added 90.99 points to 15,304.62 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.48 percent, or 6.12 points, to 1,268.25.

Tokyo's rise followed a solid performance on Wall Street, with investors hopeful that the Federal Reserve will maintain its economy-boosting easy monetary policy for a while.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.55 percent as the market largely discounted a lacklustre US retail sales report and some disappointing corporate earnings.

Tokyo trading volume was thin with many market players away for Japan's traditional mid-summer holiday.

The market also shrugged off weaker-than-expected Japanese machinery orders in June. Core machinery orders rose 8.8 percent from a month earlier, reversing a sharp decline in May.

The data followed the Wednesday release of Japanese April-June economic growth data, which showed a quarterly contraction of 1.7 percent, slightly better than expected, although it was the biggest drop since the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster.

The growth figures "may have at least removed one short-term worry for investors", Okasan Securities director Takashi Matsumoto told Dow Jones Newswires.

"The market should be more able to trend upward as valuations remain cheap by most standards," Matsumoto said.

In currency markets, the dollar was at 102.58 yen, up from 102.43 yen in New York.