Tokyo Stocks Rise Moderately in Morning

Tokyo, Dec. 27 (Jiji Press)--Stocks advanced moderately on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday morning.
At the morning close, the 225-issue Nikkei average stood up 61.07
points, or 0.59 pct, at 10,340.26. On Friday, the key market gauge fell
67.29 points.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was up 2.60 points, or
0.29 pct, at 904.26 after losing 4.12 points on Friday.
The market got off to a solid start reflecting the stability in the
yen's exchange rates, with export-oriented issues, including electronics
makers, leading the way up, brokers said.
A recent uptrend of overseas stocks also provided support to the
Tokyo market, they said.
Investors were apparently relieved to see Chinese stocks open
higher on Monday following an interest rate hike by the People's Bank of
China on Saturday, Toshiyuki Kanayama, market analyst at Monex Inc.'s
Financial Intelligence Department, said.
But the Tokyo market's rise in the morning was limited as investors
refrained from active trading ahead of the year-end, market sources said.

The market was influenced little by the Chinese interest rate hike
as the action came at the weekend, Kanayama said.
Downward pressure was weak in the absence of active sellers,
brokers said. Stocks tend to rise at the year-end when sellers retreat to
the sidelines, an official at a midsize brokerage house said.
Winners beat losers 815 to 654 on the TSE's first section in the
morning, while 187 issues were unchanged.
Half-day volume came to 542 million shares.

Thanks to the yen's stability, high-tech makers such as Hitachi,
Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sharp and Sony attracted buying.
Canon gained ground after the company on Friday announced plans to
increase its dividend payments for the year ending this month.
Chipmaker Elpida Memory rose 3.99 pct on a media report that the
company is considering tying up with Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
in liquid crystal display panel operations.
Automakers Nissan and Honda were upbeat.
Winners also included machinery makers Komatsu and Hitachi
Construction Machinery.
By contrast, utilities Tokyo Electric Power, Kansai Electric Power
and Tokyo Gas lost ground.
Telecommunications carriers NTT and NTT DoCoMo were also weak.