Tokyo stocks open higher as yen's rise takes breather

Tokyo stocks opened higher Tuesday after sharp drops the previous day, as investors took encouragement from an apparent hiatus in the Turkey crisis that halted the Turkish lira's plunge and the yen's rise.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.93 percent or 202.78 points to 22,060.21 in early trade while the broader Topix index was up 0.63 percent or 10.54 points at 1,694.04.

"Buybacks can be expected if an increasing number of investors think yesterday's sell-offs were too much," SBI Securities said in a commentary.

But the market is unlikely to surge ahead, it said. "Concerns that the Turkish economic worries will spread to other emerging markets are persistent," it added.

Tokyo stocks lost nearly two percent on Monday as the Turkish crisis boosted the yen on safe-haven buying, clouding the outlook for Japanese exporters.

Turkey's central bank has launched a raft of measures aimed at soothing markets although it gave no clear promise of rate hikes, which is what most economists and analysts say is needed to ease the crisis.

On Tuesday, the lira was hovering around 6.9 to the dollar, compared to record lows of 7.24.

Against the yen, the greenback was changing hands at 110.67 yen compared with 110.63 yen in New York Monday afternoon.

In individual stocks, Japanese carmakers gained ground. Toyota rose 0.73 percent to 6,855 yen and Honda climbed 1.25 percent to 3,313 yen.

IT investor SoftBank Group was up 2.97 percent to 10,370 yen.