Tokyo stocks up 0.90% by break on Wall Street gains

Tokyo stocks rallied Tuesday morning following sharp gains on Wall Street, while a weaker yen supported exporters including Sony and rival Panasonic.

The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange added 0.90 percent, or 177.40 points, to 19,811.89 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares gained 1.28 percent, or 20.26 points, to 1,602.94.

Tokyo's rise came as US stocks gained on upbeat earnings reports and the latest Chinese stimulus measures aimed at propping up the world's number two economy.

Investors are now turning their attention to the start of Japan's earnings season.

"The bar is already low this quarter as the market expects US profits to shrink, so if we see more solid results...we may end up exceeding those low expectations," Toshihiko Matsuno, chief strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, told Bloomberg News.

"Investors are awaiting strong earnings from Japanese companies, so they will buy on weakness. Today we could reverse yesterday's market correction."

Investors were cheered after Sunday's cut by the People's Bank of China in the amount of cash lenders must hold in reserve, a move aimed at helping kick-start the economy, which grew in January-March at its slowest quarterly pace in six years.

The next indicator on the state of economy in China -- a major Japanese trading partner -- comes with HSBC's preliminary index of manufacturing activity on Thursday.

Tuesday's rally reversed some of the losses suffered in the previous session that came on fears about Greece's future in the eurozone as Athens looks to secure billions of euros in bailout cash to pay its enormous debts.

With its creditors refusing to extend a repayment deadline while also haggling over its bailout reforms, the Greek government has ordered all public agencies to hand over their financial reserves.

In Tokyo, Sony shares climbed 1.63 percent to 3,675.0 yen, Panasonic was up 2.52 percent at 1,628.0 yen, Toyota gained 1.65 percent to 8,398.0 yen, and banking giant Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rose 2.22 percent to 5,068.0 yen.

The dollar edged up to 119.39 yen from 119.22 yen in New York, and sharply higher than 118.62 yen in Tokyo earlier Monday.

On Wall Street, the Dow jumped 1.17 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.92 percent and the Nasdaq rallied 1.27 percent.

bur-pb/dan