TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed 1.23 percent higher Wednesday, rebounding slightly from its biggest one-day drop since June, thanks to a positive lead from Wall Street.
The benchmark Nikkei-225 index, which slumped 4.18 percent on Tuesday, added 171.91 points to 14,180.38, while the Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 2.05 percent, or 23.37 points, to 1,162.64.
The sell-off Tuesday came after the index soared a world-beating 57 percent in 2013, which marked its best annual run in more than four decades.
A 14 percent drop in the Nikkei since the start of the year has made investors cautious, said Eiji Kinouchi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
An equity trading director at a foreign brokerage added that "the money flows are not illustrating a great deal of confidence that the market is going to quickly rally back".
"This could be a 'dead cat' bounce; all eyes are now on Friday's US non-farm payrolls report," the trader told Dow Jones Newswires. "If that undershoots expectations, the market could fall hard again."
Wall Street's three main indexes, which each saw losses of more than two percent at the start of the week, edged up Tuesday on bargain buying and solid corporate results. The Dow rose 0.47 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.76 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.86 percent.
In Tokyo share trading, struggling electronics giant Panasonic rocketed 19 percent to 1,262 yen after saying late Tuesday it had swung into the black with a $2.4 billion profit in the nine months to December.
Sharp, which announced a small nine-month profit Tuesday, was down 2.83 percent at 308 yen while Sony rose 4.57 percent to 1,600 yen. Sony reports it latest financial results Thursday.
Toyota jumped 6.00 percent to 5,830 yen. The world's biggest automaker said Tuesday it was on track for a record annual earnings after more than doubling its nine-month profit to $15 billion thanks to a fall in the yen over the past year and surging sedan sales.
In forex trading the dollar bought 101.43 yen, down from 101.64 yen in New York Tuesday. (AFP)
