Tokyo shares edge up after lacklustre pre-holiday trade

Tokyo shares ended higher Monday after trading in a narrow band as investors sat on their hands ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.16 percent, or 45.02 points, to 27,944.79, while the broader Topix index rose 0.28 percent, or 5.54 points, to 1,972.57.

Investors cheered Friday's gains on Wall Street, helping push share prices up in early trade. But they struggled to find fresh reasons to keep buying, causing blue-chip shares to zig-zag between positive and negative regions for most of the day.

Global markets are expected to stay relatively quiet for the rest of the week, with many US investors taking time off for Thanksgiving, said Tapas Strickland of National Australia Bank.

Tokyo markets will also be closed on Wednesday for a national holiday.

Shares were "top heavy" and "little changed" on Monday, Daiwa Securities said in a commentary, with a cautious mood emerging after Japan's government lost its third minister in a month. "The 'domino effect' of ministerial resignations... was a negative surprise," Daiwa said.

The dollar stood at 140.71 yen compared with 140.40 yen Friday in New York. Among major shares, SoftBank Group edged up 0.03 percent to 6,077 yen. Sony Group trimmed earlier gains and ended up 0.31 percent to 11,255 yen. Advantest stayed buoyant and ended up 1.45 percent to 9,120 yen. Toyota added 0.50 percent to 2,003 yen. Air carrier ANA Holdings rebounded to end up 1.01 percent to 2,863 yen.

Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing gave up earlier gains to end down 0.24 percent at 82,160 yen, and Nintendo stayed underwater to end down 0.56 percent to 5,887 yen. A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, in the early stages of a war that eight years later would put the world on edge.

Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty in absentia of murdering all 298 people on board and of bringing down the Boeing 777 with a Russian-supplied missile. A fourth man was acquitted.

Moscow slammed the "scandalous" verdict as politically motivated, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky-battling a fullscale Russian invasion after years of low-level fighting in the east-praised it as "important".

Relatives of MH17 victims blinked away tears as the verdicts were read out in a courtroom packed with families who had travelled from around the world for the end of the two-and-a-half-year trial. "The court calls the proven charges so severe that it holds that only the highest possible prison sentence would be appropriate," head judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.

"Imposing these sentences cannot take away the pain and suffering, but there's hope that today clarity has been provided about who is to blame."

But none of the suspects was at the high-security court on the outskirts of Schiphol Airport, where the doomed plane took off, after Russia refused to extradite them.

Australia accused Moscow of "harbouring murderers".

"We call on Russia to surrender those convicted so they may face the court's sentence for their heinous crimes," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

The trial represents the end of a long search for justice for the victims of the disaster, who came from 10 countries, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians.

"Justice has spoken. We wanted justice to be done and that happened, in a very well-balanced verdict," Piet Ploeg, chairman of the MH17 foundation, who lost his brother, sister-inlaw and nephew, told. -AFP

"The role of Russia has been very clearly confirmed by the court."

Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was cruising at 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) over war-torn eastern Ukraine when a BUK missile exploded near the cockpit on July 17, 2014, tearing the plane apart.

The crash triggered global outrage and sanctions against Moscow, with Ukraine's famed sunflower fields littered with bodies and wreckage. Some victims, including children, were still strapped into their seats.