Tokyo stocks open higher with focus on earnings

Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday, supported by modest gains on Wall Street with investor focus shifting to a number of upcoming corporate earnings announcements.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which fell for the sixth straight day on Wednesday, gained 0.70 percent, or 162.57 points, to 23,260.86 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.59 percent, or 10.88 points, at 1,847.59.

The dollar fetched 109.19 yen in Asian trade, down slightly from 109.27 yen in New York.

"After the initial rallies supported by gains in US shares, Tokyo stocks may see a mixed direction with few fresh factors that can lift up the market as a whole," said SBI Securities in a commentary.

On Wednesday, Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher on optimism about strong earnings and upbeat economic data, with the Dow closing up 0.3 percent.

In Tokyo, Fujifilm surged by as much as 12.6 percent in early trade, a day after it announced 10,000 job cuts by March 2020 at its Fuji Xerox subsidiary while purchasing its US partner Xerox.

Nintendo jumped 3.8 percent in early trade, after the game giant raised its annual net profit forecast by more than 40 percent to 120 billion yen ($1.1 billion).

Messaging app operator Line dropped 3.28 percent to 5,000 yen after a brokerage downgraded its evaluation of the shares.

Earnings reports due this week include Nippon Steel, Takeda and Sony.