Tokyo shares open higher, track Wall St gains

Tokyo shares opened higher on bargain-hunting Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street after sliding two sessions in a row.

US stocks rose on Wednesday, following a rebound in crude prices and after payroll firm ADP reported that private US companies added slightly more jobs in July than expected.

Japanese investors were now awaiting the US government`s official July jobs report later this week for fresh trading cues, analysts said.

We’re in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the US jobs report,’ Mitsushige Akino, a Tokyo-based executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, told Bloomberg News.

In opening deals, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.53 percent, or 85.23 points, to 16,168.34, after losing more than three percent over the past two days.

The broader Topix index of all first-section shares climbed 0.37 percent, or 4.71 points, to 1,276.69.

On forex markets, the dollar rose to 101.27 yen from 101.25 yen in New York and 100.99 yen in Tokyo earlier Wednesday.

In Tokyo share trading, energy-linked shares gained on the crude price rebound, with explorer Inpex jumping more than two percent and oil refiner JX Holdings up more than one percent.

ANA Holdings, the parent company of airline giant All Nippon Airways, soared nearly four percent in early deals after remaining upbeat on its full-year outlook despite reporting on Wednesday a slump in its net profit in the first quarter.

Toyota, which is set to report quarterly earnings later on Thursday, tacked on 0.78 percent to 5,633 yen.

On Wall Street, the Dow closed 0.2 percent higher, the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq was 0.4 percent higher.