Japanese stocks higher at open, dollar falls against yen

Japan's benchmark stock index rose Friday morning as traders bought trucking, textile and nonferrous metal issues. The dollar fell against the yen.

The Nikkei 225 index rose 132.08 points, or 0.98 percent, to 13,581.32 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange shortly after the open. The index fell 14.50 points, or 0.11 percent, the day before.

The broader TOPIX index, which includes all issues on the exchange's first section, rose 3.52 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,411.31 points. The TOPIX rose 0.90 points, or 0.06 percent. Thursday.

Stocks opened higher as players rotated funds into underbought sectors as trucking, textiles and nonferrous metals.

Rakuten, Japan's biggest online shopping mall, rose 2.7 percent following Thursday's merger proposal with major broadcaster TBS.

On Thursday, Wall Street finished mixed as the market remained mired in uncertainty amid investors' inflation worries worsening in the face of a sharp jump in import prices. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.32, nearly flat, to 10,216.59 and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 9.75, or 0.48 percent, to 2,047.22.

The dollar was trading at 114.57 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchange market at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) Friday, down 0.25 yen from late Thursday, and below the 114.37 yen it bought in New York later that day.

The euro rose to US$1.2014 from US$1.1981 late Thursday.

The yield on the 10-year Japanese bond rose to 1.5800 percent from Thursday's finish of 1.5650 percent. Its price fell 0.13 to 99.31 points, AP reported. V.A.