TOKYO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed slightly higher Wednesday as overnight advances on Wall Street lifted market sentiment, while gains were limited in the downturn in trading as investors locked in profits after the stocks surged the previous day.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average finished up 44.62 points, or 0.16 percent, from Tuesday at 28,562.21.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended at 1.72 points, or 0.09 percent, higher at 1,971.51.
Gaining issues were led by air transportation, mining and rubber product issues.
The Nikkei index fluctuated around the closing level of the previous day for most of the day and remained top-heavy after it surged more than 500 points, or 2 percent, on Tuesday.
"Stocks barely moved as the number of market participants has dropped ahead of the holidays, although the slightly weaker yen supported sentiment," said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.
Brokers said investors also avoided chasing the gains due to a lack of fresh trading cues as the Nikkei benchmark was close to the psychological level of 29,000.
On the First Section, advancers outnumbered decliners 1,147 to 911, while 126 ended unchanged.
Some export-oriented shares were bought after the yen weakened slightly against the U.S. dollar overnight, including those of electric appliance manufacturers
Kyocera climbed 0.4 percent, and Toshiba rose 1 percent.
Energy-related shares were stimulated after crude oil futures gained in New York trading, with Inpex advancing 1.5 percent, while Idemitsu Kosan added 0.9 percent.
Shinsei Bank jumped 5.9 percent, after SBI Holdings Inc., an online financial group that successfully acquired the bank earlier this month, indicated the possibility of taking it private.
Meanwhile, Tsuruha Holdings fell 5.3 percent, following the drugstore chain operator's disappointing earnings report on Tuesday for the first half of its business year to May 2022.
Volume on the main section dropped to 874.92 million shares from Tuesday's 1,015.66 million shares. Enditem
