Tokyo stocks up as Wall Street rallies

Tokyo. Tokyo stocks rose on Tuesday with investors encouraged by Wall Street rallies and Japan’s Takeda surging on reports that the drugmaker would make a formal offer to buy Ireland’s Shire.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.18 per cent or 41.53 points to close at 22,508.69 while the broader Topix index was up 0.37 per cent or 6.64 points at 1,779.82. “Investors welcomed a sign of recovery on Wall Street,” said Shinichi Yamamoto, broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo. “But they are still cautious about uncertain factors, including the Iran issue,” Yamamoto told AFP.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce later Tuesday whether he will re-impose US sanctions on Tehran, potentially throwing the entire Iran nuclear deal into question.

European leaders and diplomats -- including Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was in Washington on Monday -- have been pleading with the United States to retain the core of what Trump called a “flawed” accord.

In the 2015 pact, major powers agreed to ease some sanctions on Iran in exchange for greater scrutiny of its nuclear activities.

(AFP).