Japanese shares gain after strong finish on Wall Street last week, earnings awaited

TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Japanese shares advanced on Monday, as a strong finish last week on Wall Street boosted investor sentiment ahead of earnings reports from domestic automakers and other major firms this week.
The Nikkei share average .N225 rose 0.96% to 29,640.01 by 0154 GMT, while the broader Topix .TOPX jumped 1.14% to 1,955.07
The Dow and the S&P 500 hit record closing highs on Friday after unexpectedly slow growth in the U.S. jobs market eased concerns over prospects for rising rates. .N
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR plunged to a two-month low of 1.4690% on Friday. US/
"The U.S. market gained on speculation that low interest rates will continue for a prolonged period of time, and that also lifted today's Japanese market," said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.
"On the other hand, investors are waiting to confirm the outlook of major firms, particularly they want to see the impact of chip shortage on automakers."
Japanese automakers are set to report their earnings this week, starting with Nissan Motor 7201.T on Tuesday and Toyota Motor 7203.T on Wednesday, the same day as SoftBank Group 9984.T .
Toyota gained 1.87%, while Nissan jumped 3.85%. SoftBank Group rose 1.95%.
Nippon Steel 5401.T advanced 4.13% after issuing annual profit forecast above analysts estimate last week, helping the sector index .ISTEL. gain 3.76%.
JFE Holdings 5411.T and Daido Steel 5471.T jumped 6.03% and 5.73%, respectively.
Daiichi Sankyo 4568.T gained the most among the top 30 core Topix names, rising 5.11%, followed by Sony Group 6758.T , jumping 4.01%.
The underperformers among the Topix 30 were Seven & i Holdings 3382.T , down 1.63%, followed by Keyence Corp 6861.T , losing 0.21%.

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