Tokyo stocks edge up to seven-year high

The Nikkei nudged up 0.16 percent to its highest close in seven years on Thursday as chip-related stocks such as Tokyo Electron rose on surging DRAM chip prices, while Mitsubishi Corp and others seen as benefiting from the global economic expansion climbed.
Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's sole maker of DRAM chips, jumped 4.4 percent to 5,720 yen and Toshiba Corp, which makes NAND flash memory, hit its highest since September 2000 before ending up 2 percent at 1,002 yen.
"The chip market may have been bottoming out, and the cheap yen is also a help. Investors are buying shares of electronics companies that have forecast strong growth this year," said Yoshinori Nagano, chief strategist Daiwa Asset Management.
Electronics firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section expect an average 18 percent rise in recurring profit for the year to next March, compared with a growth forecast of 6 percent for firms in all sectors, according to Shinko Research Institute Co Ltd.
The Nikkei share average rose 28.62 points to 18,240.30, the highest close since May 2000. The benchmark has advanced for six straight sessions. The broader TOPIX index rose 0.32 percent to 1,789.38.
Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at equity marketing department Daiwa Securities SMBC Co Ltd, said the market could aim higher ahead of the Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" corporate sentiment survey due on July 2. "The market could aim not only for this year's high of 18,300 but even for 18,500 on growing hopes that the tankan survey would show strong corporate sentiment," he said.
Tokyo saw active trade with 2.2 billion shares changing hands, compared with a daily average volume of 2.2 billion shares in May. Advancers beat decliners 954 to 634.
After the market closed, data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange showed that foreign investors bought a net 305.2 billion yen worth of stocks last week, making them being net buyers of Japanese stocks for the sixth straight week. Trading firms, steel and non-ferrous stocks were among the most actively traded issues for their profit prospects.
"The companies that export their products to BRICs nations are the major draw in the market. When their share prices go overboard, investors go somewhere else, but they always come back to these stocks," Yasuo Yabe, director of sales at Meiwa Securities, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). Trading firm Mitsubishi surged 4.6 percent to 3,400 yen, Nippon Steel Corp, Japan's largest steel maker, added 1.2 percent to 882 yen, and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, a non-ferrous metals smelter, jumped 3.4 percent to 2,715 yen.
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI), Japan's third-biggest heavy machinery maker, climbed 3.4 percent to 456 yen on a news report it planned to boost its capacity to make low-pressure turbine discs for the jet engines that General Electric Co makes for Boeing Co Separately, IHI's president told Reuters on Wednesday the company planned to boost its output capacity for turbochargers, which are used primarily in diesel engines, in Europe and Asia to meet growing demand there.