Tokyo stocks rise, Fanuc, exporters soar

The Nikkei average rose 0.62 percent on Thursday as Fanuc Ltd climbed on a new factory plan and a weakening yen lifted exporters such as Advantest Corp Small-cap issues rose, with the Mothers index jumping 5.28 percent and supporting the overall market.
While Fujitsu Ltd climbed 3.9 percent to 883 yen after French stock market watchdog AMF cleared Fujitsu's offer for French computer services group GFI Informatique. Rate worries continued to keep a lid on the market. A two-day policy meeting by the Bank of Japan will end on Friday. Trade slowed, with 1.85 billion shares changing hands on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange compared with a daily average volume of 2.2 billion shares in May. Advancing shares outpaced decliners by a ratio of more than three to one.
"Investors couldn't really build new positions ahead of the meeting," said Hideyuki Suzuki, investment information manager at SBI Securities. Investors are also watching US producer and inflation price data, on Thursday and Friday respectively, to confirm whether growing inflation fears are justified.
The Nikkei added 109.52 points to 17,842.29 and the broader TOPIX index gained 0.61 percent to 1,756.64. Jun Nishizaki, chief portfolio manager at Nissay Asset Management, said there were signs of inflation such as wage rises but for now he saw a low risk of it.
"If the economy is expanding at a low risk of inflation, that should be good for companies and we can expect rises in the stock market," he said. Still, concerns remained about the impact of rate rises on corporate earnings. Dai-ichi Life Research Institute estimated in a report on Thursday that a 1 percent rise in long-term interest rates would push down corporate recurring profits by 3.5 percent. In particular, companies in the real estate, communications and services sectors were susceptible to rate rises, it said.
Fanuc was the biggest contributor to the Nikkei's gain, rising 3.3 percent to 12,060 yen after it said it would build a new plant in Japan to boost its output of control units used in industrial robots.
Exporters advanced with Advantest up 1.4 percent at 5,230 yen and Kyocera Corp adding 1.3 percent to 12,470 yen as the dollar hit a 4-1/2-year high against the yen. TV broadcaster Fuji Television Network Inc stood out, jumping 5 percent to 252,000 yen after J.P. Morgan Securities started coverage of it with an "overweight" rating and target price of 325,000 yen.
Meanwhile, construction-use steel makers gained on speculation that Nippon Steel Corp's additional investment in Godo Steel could shake up the 1 trillion yen industry, crowded by nearly 40 small companies. Godo Steel rose 2.6 percent to 564 yen and Nippon Steel was up 1.2 percent at 873 yen. Osaka Steel Co jumped 4.7 percent to 2,210 yen and Yamato Kogyo Co gained 4.7 percent to 4,500 yen.