Tokyo shares up 0.59pc by noon

TOKYO: Tokyo shares gained 0.59 percent Monday morning helped by bargain-hunting, dealers said.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 55.44 points to 9,406.84 by the lunch break. The Topix index of all first-section issues gained 0.73 percent or 5.85 points to 811.19.

Utilities led the gains as Japan's industry minister said Saturday that existing nuclear reactors should be restarted, after confirming additional measures had been taken to safeguard them from possible emergencies.

Tokyo Electric jumped 7.28 percent to 324 yen and Chubu Electric soared 6.89 percent to 1,427 yen.

The market was also given a boost by a positive day on Wall Street at the end of last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained Friday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for swift action on a new Greek rescue package.

After seven hours of crunch talks, eurozone finance ministers early Monday said they and the IMF would release 12 billion euros of loans in "mid-July" on the condition that Greece adopted tough budget cuts and asset sales.

Nonetheless, dealers said uncertainty lingered towards securing a eurozone bailout for Greece.

"Greece will continue to hang over investors' heads, as will the health of the US and Chinese economies, so buying will be limited until those issues clear up," an investment strategist at a Japanese securities firm said.

While Germany's decision to drop its insistence on forcing a rescheduling of Greek government bonds eased tensions somewhat, it wasn't enough to calm investors, the strategist noted.

A US Federal Open Market Committee meeting as well as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments on Wednesday will also be closely watched, dealers said.

Shortly before the opening, official data showed Japan logged a bigger-than-expected trade deficit of 853.7 billion yen ($10.7 billion) in May as exports suffered following the March earthquake and tsunami.

Fujitsu was up 2.31 percent at 442 yen after the electronics maker on Friday forecast net profit to rise 8.9 percent this year, expecting demand for IT products and services to recover.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011