Tokyo Stock Exchange. (AFP)

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Tokyo – Tokyo stocks opened sharply higher on Friday with sentiment boosted by gains on Wall Street and a weak yen.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 1.15% or 274.77 points to 24 071.51 in early trade while the Topix index was up 1.02% or 18.41 points at 1 818.52.

The bullish opening came after Wall Street stocks advanced and the dollar rose on confidence in the US economy.

“Buying will likely beat selling after US stocks rebounded… Investors will likely hunt exporter stocks given the yen has weakened against the dollar,” it said in a commentary.

A cheaper yen brightens outlooks for exporters as it inflates their overseas profits when repatriated.

The dollar was changing hands at ¥113.39, unchanged from New York on Thursday afternoon but up from the mid ¥112 range seen when Tokyo markets closed the previous day.

SBI added Tokyo trading could slow later on Friday as the day marks the closure of the week, month and April-September first half of business year for Japanese companies.

In individual stocks trade, IT investor SoftBank Group jumped 3.15% to ¥11 305, Sony went up 2.45% to ¥6 828 and Nintendo climbed 1.18% to ¥41 310.

Panasonic, which supplies battery cells to electric carmaker Tesla Motors, fell 1.38% to ¥1 318.5.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Tesla CEO Elon Musk with securities fraud, alleging he had misled investors last month in tweets about taking the company private.

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