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Tokyo stocks close 0.69% higher

TOKYO — Tokyo stocks rose 0.69 percent by the close Tuesday, bucking a downturn on Wall Street amid hopes for a firm recovery among Japanese high-tech manufacturers as they release quarterly earnings.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 59.62 points to 8,695.06, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares was up 0.62 percent, or 4.57 points, at 736.31.

Tokyo stocks had initially opened in negative territory, after a weak session on Wall Street with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing slightly lower, down 0.02 percent to 13,073.01 on Monday.

But the Nikkei index turned into positive territory by noon amid rising expectations for positive earnings from Japan’s consumer electronics giants in the three months to June, brokers said.

“Since these stocks were oversold lately, investors are covering their short-positions,” Monex Inc. senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama told Dow Jones Newswires.

Hitachi gained 1.97 percent to 465 yen after it said Monday that its quarterly net profit almost doubled to 7.0 billion yen ($89.5 million)

Panasonic jumped 4.59 percent to 546 yen, with the consumer electronics giant saying after the closing bell that it had returned to profitability in the April to June quarter.

Honda Motor closed 2.08 percent higher at 2,551 yen ahead of its quarterly earnings. After markets closed, the automaker said its net profit surged more than fourfold to $1.7 billion.