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Bargain hunters firm Tokyo trade
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japanese stocks firmed in early trade on Monday after last week's four-day drop to two-decade lows provided opportunities to hunt for bargains among blue chips such as Sony Corp. Last week, the key Nikkei average lost 3.19 percent to 7,816.49, its lowest close since January 1983, on selling by pension funds and concerns about a sluggish global economy. As of 0018 GMT, the Nikkei was up 39.10 points or 0.50 percent at 7,855.59 and the broader TOPIX index was up 0.07 percent at 782.76. But no active buying was seen likely before a string of major U.S. firms such as Intel Corp hand in quarterly results later this week, analysts said. "The main investors will mostly sit on the sidelines before January-March results from big-name U.S. firms like Intel, Microsoft Corp and others are out later this week," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, an equity strategist at Shinko Securities. Sony, the world's biggest consumer electronics maker, was up 1.33 percent at 3,820 yen after ending the previous session at a four-year low. Drug maker Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd, another blue-chip issue which tumbled on Friday to a four-year low, was up 1.53 percent at 3,980. The weekend meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations' finance ministers in Washington provided few clues to direction since they focused on reconstruction in Iraq rather than other economic issues. Market players paid little attention to the results of regional elections in Japan on Sunday, including 10 governorship races, since voters' support for the ruling parties was not seen as a pressing major issue. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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