Tokyo stocks close up 1.17%

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei climbed 1.17 percent on Friday to within a whisker of 19,000 as a weak yen boosted exporter shares ahead of a closely watched US jobs report.

The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 219.16 points by the close to 18,971.00, while the Topix index of all first-section issues added 1.12 percent, or 17.12 points, to 1,540.84.

Investors were eyeing a monthly US jobs report that if strong enough could support a Federal Reserve interest rate increase, a move likely to boost the dollar against the yen, which boosts the profitability of Japanese exporters.

In forex markets, the greenback fetched 120.01 yen, against 120.14 yen in New York but it was still up from 119.85 yen in Tokyo earlier Thursday.

The euro remained weak as the European Central Bank said it would begin a 1.1-trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) bond buying programme, known as quantitative easing (QE), next week.

ECB chief Mario Draghi also said that the ECB was raising its growth forecasts for the 19-nation bloc, although he added that inflation would come in at zero this year, lower than previously projected.

"Investors are positive on QE in Europe and the raising of the growth target, plus there was no really bad news from the US," Andrew Sullivan, head of sales trading at Haitong International Securities, told Bloomberg News.

Major exporters rose with Canon gaining 2.04 percent to 4,000.0 yen, Konica Minolta up 1.45 percent to 1,255.0 yen, and Toyota rose 1.58 percent to 8,190.0 yen.

Japan's biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ was up 2.83 percent at 778.5 yen.

Shares in Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings jumped 1.91 percent to 3,771.0 yen after the leading Nikkei business newspaper reported the non-life insurer had decided to take a roughly 15 percent stake in French reinsurance giant Scor for more than 110 billion yen ($910 million).

bur/si/pb/pdh