Japan's Nikkei average climbed 2.6 percent on Friday on investor reassurance after the U.S. government said Bank of America Corp will receive $20 billion in fresh government cash and a federal backstop against $118 billion of bad assets. A retreat in the yen helped spark active short-covering, particularly in exporters such as Honda Motor Co, while chip shares climbed after encouraging comments from Intel Corp . The benchmark Nikkei gained 206.84 points to 8,230.15 after falling to a one-month low below 8,000 on Thursday, while the broader Topix climbed 2.8 percent to 817.89. (Reporting by Elaine Lies) ((elaine.lies@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1807; Reuters Messaging:elaine.lies.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS JAPAN STOCKS Reuters Terminal users can see other related news and rates by double-clicking on: All Nikkei indices All shares listed on Nikkei-225 N225 index TOPIX index Nikkei Japan 1000 TOPIX sector data Nikkei 300 index TOPIX futures data Osaka N225 data Chicago N225 data Top 30 by volume Top 30 by value Total volume Total value 1st section sector RICs All TSE weighted avg Top 30 gainers by pct Top 30 losers by pct Top 30 net gainers Top 30 net losers Active Japanese stocks Japan economic indicators ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS: Pan-Asia Japan S.Korea S.E. Asia Hong Kong Taiwan Australia/NZ India China OTHER MARKETS: Wall Street Gold Currency Eurostocks Oil JP bonds ADR Report LME metals US bonds Stocks News US Stocks News Europe DIARIES & DATA: IPO diary & data Asia earnings diary U.S. earnings diary European diary Japan diary Wall Street Week Ahead Eurostocks Week Ahead TOP NEWS: For top Asian company news: Top News Japan U.S. company news Europe company news Forex news Global Economy news All Equity news Tech, Media, Telecoms Banking news Politics/General news Asia Macro data A multimedia version of Reuters Top News is available at: http://topnews.session.rservices.com LIVE PRICES & DATA: World stocks Currencies Dow Jones/NASDAQ Debt FTSE 100 LME price overview Yen/dollar (Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 * Reuters Plus: from your WebDSS screen For more information on Top News, visit

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