Tokyo stocks rose in thin trading on Friday, led by blue-chip Japanese exporters that stand to benefit from a stronger U.S. dollar. The dollar fell slightly against the Japanese yen but higher against the euro.
The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues rose 15.13 points, or 0.13 percent, to 11,761.10 points. The index added 6.85 points, or 0.06 percent, Thursday.
The dollar was trading at 106.38 yen at 5 p.m. Friday, down 0.03 yen from late Thursday in Tokyo but just above the 106.35 yen it bought in New York later that day.
On the stock market, Canon Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., and other blue chips gained after the dollar held on to most of its gains made after the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates on Tuesday.
The dollar's climb against the yen raises the value of Japanese exporters' overseas earnings when converted to the Japanese currency.
"Institutional investors were sporadic buyers of high tech stocks, which have been overlooked recently," said Nikko Cordial Securities product manager Hiroichi Nishi.
Fujitsu rose 1.7 percent, Sharp finished up 1.1 percent and Kyocera climbed 1.7 percent.
Sony gained 2.1 percent, in part due to strong demand for the company's newly released portable game console during its Wednesday launch in the United States.
The broader TOPIX, which includes all issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, advanced 5.33 points, or 0.45 percent, to 1,193.77 points. The TOPIX lost 5.41 points, or 0.45 percent, the day before.
On the bourse's first section, gainers outnumbered decliners 793 to 725 and 131 issues were unchanged from the day before.
Trading volume fell to 1.307 billion shares from 1.707 billion shares Thursday.
In New York on Thursday, a late-session sell-off kept stocks narrowly mixed as cautious investors took what little profits they could from a disappointing week marked by an interest rate hike and inflation concerns. All three major indexes saw their third straight week of losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 13.15, or 0.13 percent, to 10,442.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 1.11, or 0.09 percent, at 1,171.42. But the Nasdaq composite index climbed 0.84, or 0.04 percent, to 1,991.06 as investors returned to the heavily oversold technology sector.
After oil prices dropped 4 percent earlier in the week, crude oil staged a recovery Thursday. A barrel of light crude settled at $54.84, up $1.03, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In other Tokyo currency trade, the dollar was also higher against the euro after the Fed's interest rate hike, with the single European currency down at $1.2957 late Friday from $1.3013 late on Thursday.
The Federal Reserve pushed the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, up to 2.75 percent on Tuesday, marking the seventh quarter-point increase since June. Higher interest rates usually boost a currency by making assets denominated in that currency more attractive to investors.
The euro slid against the Japanese currency to 137.92 yen from 138.41 yen late Thursday.
The yield on Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond slid to 1.3650 percent late Friday from 1.3800 percent on Thursday. Its price rose 0.13 point to 101.18 points.