By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Japanese exporter shares' stellar performance Thursday against the broader market's pale backdrop highlights the extent to which a weaker yen can still overpower other factors to lift share prices. On Wednesday, the dollar rose to a more than two-month high against its Japanese counterpart in North American trading, as the greenback benefited from ongoing debt woes in Europe. See Wednesday's Currencies report. The currency moves sent exporter stocks higher, helping support a lackluster broader market, in the latest example of a weak yen's power to boost equities. The Japanese stock market may turn when concerns about yen appreciation recede, said UBS Securities' Tokyo-based economists Takuji Aida and Sean Yokota. "The growing current-account surplus despite weak global final demand suggests Japanese companies' productivity and profitability are strong. These are some of the factors behind recurring profit and cash flow improvements, thus underpinning the stock market," they said in a research note Thursday. "However, if concerns about yen appreciation are strong, deflationary expectations will heighten, [and] the market would not be able to factor in a sustainable corporate earnings recovery and would probably remain weak," the economists said. Before Wednesday's jump, the yen has traded relatively stably against the dollar in recent months, with the greenback recovering from its 14-year low of 84.82 yen in late November to around 93 yen in early January. Still, the yen has been relatively strong against the dollar compared to the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, when the dollar remained above the 100-yen mark. In the tech sector Thursday, Advantest Corp. (JP:6857 2,201, +26.00, +1.20%) (ATE 24.06, -0.59, -2.39%) added 2.5% in early afternoon trading. Tokyo Electron (JP:8035 5,940, +60.00, +1.02%) was up 0.7%, Elpida Memory Inc. (JP:6665 1,767, +18.00, +1.03%) (ELPDF 17.60, -2.15, -10.89%) was up 1%, and Kyocera Corp. (JP:6971 8,900, +230.00, +2.65%) (KYO 96.90, +0.87, +0.91%) rose 1.1%. Canon Inc. (JP:7751 4,160, +70.00, +1.71%) (CAJ 45.60, -0.23, -0.50%) , the world's biggest maker of digital cameras, climbed 0.5%. Shares of auto makers also rose. Mazda Motor Corp. (JP:7261 239.00, -4.00, -1.65%) (MZDAF 2.58, -0.05, -1.90%) was up 1.3%, Honda Motor Co. (JP:7267 3,235, -10.00, -0.31%) (HMC 35.53, -0.73, -2.01%) was up 0.8% and Toyota Motor Corp. (JP:7203 3,715, +55.00, +1.50%) (TM 81.58, -0.77, -0.94%) was up 0.5% But both the benchmark Nikkei 225 Average and the broader Topix 1000 index were wavering in and out of positive territory, trading down less than 0.1% each. Robust exports The gains came a day after Japanese trade data showed that the country's exports continued to pick up pace in the latest month. Japan's February trade surplus totaled 651 billion yen ($7.2 billion), above an average forecast of 550 billion yen by economist surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Exports rose 45.3% from a year earlier, below expectations buts still gaining speed from January's 40.9% year-on-year gains. Imports were up 29.5% from their year-earlier level, the second consecutive rise. Read more on Japan trade data. "It would make sense meanwhile for Japan to dedicate greater investment resources to areas of increasing capacity needs, not only among exporting firms but also on importer firms with overseas operations," said Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ strategist Naomi Fink. "The remarkable recovery in imports will contribute negatively to terms of trade, and thus to corporate margins," she said in emailed comments. Import prices have recovered above and beyond export prices on a year-on-year basis, outpacing the recovery in export volumes, she said, which "explains why yen strength has had a much more limited negative impact upon exports than it has in restraining imports." Outside of Japan Thursday, other Asian markets were mostly lower. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 1.2%, and the Shanghai Composite fell 0.9%. But South Korea's Kospi bucked the downtrend, rising 0.7%.

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