TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rose on Wednesday,
with transport stocks leading gains, as Wall Street's
tech-driven rally overnight and strong domestic earnings
forecasts boosted market sentiment.
The Nikkei share average .N225 edged up 0.56% to 28,520.55
as of 0204 GMT, while the broader Topix .TOPX gained 0.70% to
1860.12.
"Robust earnings of global IT firms have boosted investor
expectations for better earnings of Japanese companies, while
worries about a short-squeeze triggered by U.S. retail investors
had been erased," said Koichi Kurose, chief strategist at Resona
Asset Management.
U.S. stocks finished sharply higher for a second straight
day overnight, helped by gains in Amazon.com AMZN.O and
Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O ahead of their results and by
optimism over progress on a U.S. pandemic relief package. .N
Mitsubishi Motor 7211.T , up 12.15%, led gains on the
Nikkei 225 index after it cut its annual net loss forecast on
Tuesday.
Panasonic 6752.T rose 3.11% after the electronics
conglomerate said its battery business supplying Tesla Inc
TSLA.O would be profitable this fiscal year, and raised its
full-year operating profit forecast by more than half.
Toyota Motor 7203.T jumped 3.66% after its autoparts
affiliates Denso 6902.T and Aisin Seiki 7259.T raised their
outlook. Denso gained 3.26% and Aisin Seiki rose 1.9%.
Pandemic-beaten transport shares gained, with West Japan
Railway 9021.T rising 5.19% and East Japan Railway 9020.T
gaining 3.47%. Japan Airlines 9201.T jumped 4.2% while ANA
Holdings 9202.T rose 1.7%.
Transport shares were buoyed by hopes that a drop in the
number of daily COVID-19 infections would boost travel, Kurose
said.
Japan on Tuesday extended the state of emergency in Tokyo
and other regions for another month, seeking to keep the upper
hand over a COVID-19 outbreak, although daily case numbers have
begun to edge down.