TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market opened slightly higher on Friday, with the overnight gains on Wall Street and the European Central Bank's decision on fresh stimulus aiding sentiment.
However, with investors turning cautious, choosing to wait for the crucial U.S. jobs data due later in the day, the market pared its early gains and is currently down marginally.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is down 2.4 points at 15,077.0, after having advanced to 15,144.3 earlier.
Sumco Corp. shares are up nearly 7 percent following media reports the company's plants are working at full capacity. Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. shares are up nearly 3 percent following a rating upgrade.
GS Yuasa Corp., Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Sharp Corp., Showa Denko KK, Mitsumi Electric, Kubota Corp., Furukawa and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. are moving up 2 to 3.5 percent. Sekisui House is up 2 percent on higher earnings.
Sumitomo Chemical, JTEKT Corp., Sony Financial Holdings, Sojitz Corp., Dowa Holdings, MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Asahi Kasei Corp. and Resona Holdings are all advancing by over 1.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Taiyo Yuden is down 2.3 percent. Konami Corp., Minebea Co., Suzuki Motor, Seven & I Holdings, Fanuc Corp., Nissan Motor, Oki Electric Industry and Marui Group are lower by 0.8 to 1.5 percent.
On the economic front, Japan will release preliminary April numbers for its leading and coincident indexes. The leading index is expected to show a score of 106.2, down from 107.1 in March. The coincident is called at 110.8, down from 114.5 in the previous month.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid 102 yen- range in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 102.31 to the U.S. dollar, compared to Thursday's close of 102.53 yen per dollar.
On Wall Street, stocks ended notably higher on Thursday, as investors reacted positively to new stimulus measures announced by the European Central Bank, which cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.15 percent and lowered its deposit rate to negative 0.1 percent.
The Dow climbed 98.6 points or 0.6 percent to 16,836.1, the Nasdaq jumped 44.6 points or 1.1 percent to 4,296.2 and the S&P 500 advanced 12.6 points or 0.7 percent to 1,940.5.
Major European markets ended mixed on Thursday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index edged down by 0.1 percent, the German DAX index inched up by 0.2 percent and the French CAC 40 index closed up 1.1 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX