Japan shares up 1.16pc by noon

The benchmark Nikkei index rose 110.57 points to 9,615.54 by the lunch break. The Topix index of all first-section issues was up 7.92 points or 0.96 percent at 831.60.

Japanese stocks were helped when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said April industrial production grew 1.0 percent from March, in the first sign of a tentative recovery from the March 11 quake-tsunami and nuclear crisis.

The rise was below expectations for a 2.9 percent rise, but the ministry also said it expected industrial orders to increase in May and June.

"Looking at these outlook figures, we are able to confirm the faster-than-expected recovery in Japan's supply chain," Cosmo Securities strategist Toshikazu Horiuchi told Dow Jones Newswires.

Takashi Ushio, general manager at Marusan Securities, said: "At this pace, a V-shaped recovery may even be possible during the July-September quarter instead of the latter half of the year as initially anticipated."

However, he warned that "we're still not at a stage where these share gains are sustainable."

Horiuchi also noted that the outlook after June remained uncertain due to anticipated electricity shortages caused by the ongoing nuclear crisis.

Tokyo Electric Power Company lost 3.37 percent after rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded the operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.

S&P said in a statement that it lowered TEPCO's long-term corporate credit rating to B+ from BBB and its short-term corporate credit rating to B from A-2.

Sharp was up 2.97 percent on expectations that solar panel demand will rise after Germany announced its decision to close all of its nuclear reactors by 2022 and to strongly promote renewables.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011