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| - Tokyo stocks opened higher Monday on hopes of economic recovery as Tokyo was added to a Japanese government domestic tourism campaign intended to boost an economy hit hard by the coronavirus. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.27 percent, or 62.07 points, at 23,468.56 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.66 percent, or 10.85 points, at 1,647.49. "Expectations for expansion in domestic economic activities are growing after Tokyo was added to the government's 'Go To' travel campaign," Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary. Dealers were watching the ruling party's leadership election later in the day which will effectively decide Japan's next prime minister. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga is expected to win. But just how many votes he receives could be an indicator for the timing of a snap election and suggest the shape of economic policies ahead, they said. The dollar fetched 106.11 yen in early Asian trade, against 106.10 yen in New York late Friday. In Tokyo, SoftBank Group soared 9.38 percent to 6,410 yen after the telecom and investment giant said it was selling British chip designer Arm to US chip company NVIDIA for up to $40 billion. Among other major shares, Nippon Steel was up 0.95 percent at 1,170.5 yen, Toyota advanced 0.73 percent to 7,007 yen, and Canon was 2.39 percent higher at 1,802 yen. On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.5 percent at 27,665.64 and the broader S&P was 0.1 percent higher but the tech-rich Nasdaq closed down 0.6 percent on profit-taking. kh/sah/mtp
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