Tokyo stocks open up 0.78 percent

TOKYO – Japanese shares opened up 0.78 percent on Monday following a rally on Wall Street last week and after Europe boosted its defences against its debt crisis, brokers said.

The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened 78.16 points higher at 10,161.72. The Topix index of all first-section shares rose 0.90 percent, or 7.72 points, to 862.07.

US stocks recovered from early weakness to end Friday mostly in the black, though Apple, hit by new reports of labour abuses at its Chinese suppliers, weighed on markets.

On the final trading day in the first quarter Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.50 percent to 13,212.04, with the blue-chip index up 8.1 percent over the past three months — its highest rate in years.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.37 percent to 1,408.47, while the tech-centric Nasdaq slipped 0.12 percent to 3,091.57.

Helping sentiment were fresh data showing that US consumer spending picked up pace in February, surging 0.8 percent over January. It was more than expected though part of the reason was higher gasoline prices.

The gains followed rises on European markets after eurozone finance ministers agreed to boost their firewall against the currency bloc’s debt crisis to about 800 billion euros ($1.07 trillion).

Shortly before the opening bell, the Bank of Japan announced that business confidence among major Japanese manufacturers remained unchanged at minus 4 in March with economists expecting a better reading of minus 1.