Tokyo stocks continue to move upward

The Nikkei share average inched to its fifth straight advance on Wednesday as Mitsumi Electric Co Ltd and other technology stocks followed a rise in similar US firms. Overall gains were meagre, however, due to slow trade. Volume on the exchange's first section hit a new low for the year.
Market participants said investors were likely holding back due to concern about the outcome of an upper house election later this month. "Until the election is over, it is kind of hard to really buy stocks," said Shigemi Nonaka, special adviser at Polestar Investment Management.
Japan's defence minister resigned on Tuesday over controversial comments about the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, marking the latest controversy for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's beleaguered ruling coalition. Participants are particularly worried political change will push foreign investors away from Japanese equities.
"Foreign investors won't like it if Abe's Liberal Democratic Party lose in the election. So that would lead to a brief sell-off." The benchmark Nikkei average finished up 0.l0 percent, or 18.82 points, at 18,168.72. The broader TOPIX index rose 0.03 percent to 1,782.44.
Trade activity hits its lowest since December 2006, with 1.52 billion shares changing hands on the exchange's first section. Declining shares outnumbered advancers by a ratio of nearly two to one. Tech-related shares rose, following a gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Mitsumi Electric, a maker of electronic parts, climbed 3 percent to 4,520 yen. Mitsumi may be one of the best kept secrets in the Tokyo market: shares of the little-known company have climbed some 70 percent so far this year, adding to a surge of 96 percent in 2006. Sony Corp rose 1.9 percent to 6,310 yen.
Shares of Fast Retailing Co declined 4.3 percent to 8,530 yen, becoming the biggest drag on the Nikkei 225. The clothing retailer said its same-store sales fell 1.3 percent in June, reflecting sluggish demand for products related to Japan's "cool biz" campaign, which promotes casual clothing at work.
Shares of Nikon Corp rose 1.7 percent to 3,500 yen. The company has doubled its sales growth target for chip steppers in the next business year, helped by strong demand from chip makers, a top executive told Reuters on Tuesday.
Chip steppers are multi-million dollar machines used in the chip-making process. "There was some concern that chip investment was declining, but those concerns seem to have decreased," said Hideyuki Suzuki, investment information manager at SBI Securities.
Softbank Corp gained 3.6 percent to 2,845 yen on expectations of strong subscriber growth in June. The data will be announced on July 6. Softbank, the smallest of Japan's cellphone service operators, added the most number of users in May, outpacing bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp for the first time.
Shares of Nintendo Co Ltd gained 2.8 percent to 48,000 on the Osaka exchange, after earlier hitting a record high of 48,150 t jump in group operating profit for the year ended May and forecast 22 percent growth this year as it continues its rapid store expansion.
Honeys, which sells women's clothing via its network of 700 stores in Japan and 21 stores in China, has grown rapidly over the past few years while procuring most of its products from Chinese suppliers to keep costs in check.