TOKYO: Tokyo stocks edged up 0.23 percent on Friday, erasing earlier losses, after Wall Street vaulted to new record highs and as the yen stalled against the dollar.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 33.67 points at 14,506.25, while the Topix index of all first-section shares rose 0.60 percent, or 7.22 points, to 1,201.99.
Trading was light ahead of a long weekend in Japan with few immediate trading cues.
A 5.81 percent drop in heavyweight Fast Retailing's shares pulled the market lower as the Uniqlo clothing chain's parent reported relatively weak operating profit on Thursday, dealers said.
"The market continues to show upside bias; without Fast Retailing's selloff, the Nikkei would be staging a much sharper rally," an equity trading director at a foreign brokerage told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Otherwise, there are simply just too few trading cues for making any bets with confidence. Foreign players are largely absent."
Tokyo's tepid performance came as US stocks rose and the dollar fell Thursday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to maintain the bank's easy-money policy for the foreseeable future.
Bernanke, speaking in Boston late Wednesday afternoon, promised to keep interest rates low due to the weak economy, suggesting a slower time-frame to tapering the Fed's aggressive bond-buying programme.
Wall street provided a record-breaking lead, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging 1.11 percent and the S&P 500 up 1.36 percent.
The Tokyo market won a measure of support when the yen stopped strengthening.
The dollar fetched 99.10 yen in the afternoon, from 98.90 yen in New York.
A strong yen is bad for Japanese exporters as it makes their products less competitive abroad while eroding their repatriated income.
In Tokyo trade, exporters were mixed, with Toyota up 0.47 percent at 6,410 yen while Sony lost 0.41 percent to end at 2,179 yen.
Honda rose 0.39 percent to 3,805 yen after saying it will build a European racing operations base in Britain ahead of its return to Formula One in 2015. (AFP)
