Nikkei rises on boost from Toyota, yen slide; Topix hits 2-year high
* Topix hits 2-year highs
* Toyota rises 2 pct after raising earnings outlook
* Kajima soars after its April-June profit jumps
* Toshiba soars after report auditor to sign off on results
By Ayai Tomisawa
TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Monday, led by sharp gains for Toyota Motor Corp after it raised its earnings outlook, while a weaker yen following strong U.S. jobs data underpinned overall sentiment.
Toyota surged 2.0 percent after the world's No.2 automaker raised its full-year outlook on Friday thanks to favourable exchange rates.
Another winner was construction company Kajima Corp , jumping 5.3 percent to a near 21-year high after the company reported a 65.6 percent jump in its April-June net profit.
The Nikkei ended 0.5 percent higher to 20,055.89. The broader Topix gained 0.5 percent to 1,639.27, the highest closing level since August 2015, though overall trade was thin, with only 1.5 billion shares changing hands on the main board, the lowest level in two weeks.
"Carmakers had conservative earnings outlooks in the beginning of this fiscal year, so the fact that Toyota raised its forecast is boosting sentiment," said Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. "The market has been happy with quarterly Japanese corporate earnings so far, and positive sentiment will likely last this week."
The dollar, which briefly sank below 110.00 yen to a seven-week low last week, finally pulled ahead after stronger-than-expected jobs growth in July.
On Friday, the closely watched U.S. jobs data showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by a better-than-expected 209,000 jobs last month, and June's employment gain was revised higher.
In Asian trade, the dollar was up 0.1 percent at 110.785 yen after rising as high as 111.050 on Friday.
Another big mover was Toshiba Corp, which soared more than 5.9 percent after the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun newspaper reported on Monday that Toshiba's auditors will sign off on its financial results for the year ended March.
Toshiba's auditor, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Aarata, is expected to issue a so-called "unqualified opinion" approving the firm's accounts or a "qualified opinion" indicating some minor problems with the books, to meet a Thursday deadline imposed by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Eric Meijer)
