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| - Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday as investors took heart from fresh Wall Street records fuelled by coronavirus vaccine progress. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.40 percent or 106.43 points to 26,573.51 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.17 percent or 2.94 points at 1,761.75. "Japanese shares are seen rallying following gains on Wall Street" on hopes that Covid-19 vaccines will become widely available after the first jab was given in Britain, said Monex senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at all-time highs, with the S&P 500 closing up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 0.5 percent. The Dow advanced 0.4 percent to close at 30,173.88. Sentiment has been boosted by major vaccine announcements that have lifted confidence about the potential for a strong economic recovery in 2021. The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued a briefing document saying the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective, raising expectations the regulator is poised to grant emergency approval. Also Tuesday, AstraZeneca became the first Covid-19 vaccine maker to publish final-stage clinical trial data in a scientific journal, confirming that the jab works in 70 percent of cases on average. A higher-than-expected figure in Japan's machinery orders in October -- a 17.1 percent rise from the previous month -- is also supporting the market, analysts said. The dollar fetched 104.16 yen against 104.16 yen in New York late Tuesday. In Tokyo, Toyota was up 0.92 percent at 7,265 yen following a report the automaker plans to invest $2 billion in electric cars in Indonesia over five years. Its rivals were also higher, with Honda trading up 1.10 percent at 3,117 yen and Nissan up 1.43 percent at 545.4 yen. Elsewhere, industrial robot maker Fanuc was up 1.72 percent at 25,730 yen, parts maker Rohm was up 1.95 percent at 9,920 yen, and chip-testing equipment Advantest rallied 2.59 percent to 7,930 yen. kh/kaf/oho
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