Tokyo stocks were mixed Friday morning as a cautious mood spread through the market after the bourse suffered its worst-ever system glitch and suspended trading the previous day.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 34.50 points, or 0.15 percent, from Wednesday to 23,219.62. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 0.53 points, or 0.03 percent, at 1,624.96.

Gainers were led by marine transportation and bank issues while pharmaceutical and electric power and gas issues led decliners.

The U.S. dollar stayed in the mid-105 yen zone as investors awaited U.S. employment data for September due out later in the day.

At noon, the dollar fetched 105.63-64 yen compared with 105.51-61 yen in New York and 105.53-54 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The euro was quoted at $1.1718-1722 and 123.80-84 yen against $1.1745-1755 and 123.93-124.03 yen in New York and $1.1736-1737 and 123.85-89 yen in Tokyo late Thursday afternoon.

After opening at 9 a.m. as usual, the Nikkei briefly rose more than 180 points, tracking overnight advances on Wall Street.

But it soon ran out of steam as the market was weighed down by uncertainty over the U.S. stimulus package to spur its coronavirus-hit economy, brokers said.

"Investors took to the sidelines as the cause of the system glitch is still unclear," said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co.

Japan Exchange Group Inc. said Thursday the technical issue stemmed from a defect in the hardware in the bourse's trading system, and that the automatic backup system also failed. The faulty hardware was replaced and handed over to Fujitsu Ltd., its developer, for further investigation, the bourse said.

"Concerns will remain unless it becomes clear why the backup system didn't work and why the hardware broke down," Ichikawa said.

On the First Section, the numbers of advancing and declining issues were not available due to yesterday's suspension. The share prices in the morning were compared with those of Wednesday's closing.

Japan Exchange Group lost 48 yen, or 1.6 percent, to 2,890 yen while Fujitsu sagged 315 yen, or 2.2 percent, to 14,025 yen on the bourse's worst outage since it fully computerized trading in 1999.

Chip-related issues notably advanced following overnight gains in their U.S. peers.

Tokyo Electron rose 510 yen, or 1.9 percent, to 27,840 yen and Advantest gained 40 yen, or 0.8 percent, to 5,130 yen.

==Kyodo

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