RTRS: Nikkei up 0.3 percent, U.S. hopes boost exporters
The Nikkei average rose 0.3 percent on Monday as hopes for bold economic measures from the new U.S. administration helped exporters, but worries about the upcoming earnings season capped further gains.
Toshiba Corp shot up 6 percent after a newspaper reported the electronics conglomerate had won contracts to build two nuclear power generation units for a project in Texas planned by NRG Energy, estimated to be worth 600 billion-800 billion yen ($6.6 billion-$8.8 billion).
In directionless trade, defensive stocks such as Kao Corp, Japan's biggest household products maker, lost steam after having gained sharply.
"It's hard to make a move ahead of earnings results. Electronics makers and automakers will likely book a fall in profits but investors need to know by how much," said Naoki Koga, a senior fund manager at Toyota Asset Management.
"Optimism over the incoming U.S. administration still runs high, but that is scary at the same time. Even if the economic steps are good enough, they could be sold off if investors decide they are disappointing."
The United States and Britain on Sunday signaled urgent and more forceful moves to reopen the world's clogged credit arteries and Barack Obama prepared a "strong message" for banks after he takes over the U.S. presidency this week.
The Nikkei added 22.96 points to 8,253.11, after rising as much as 1.5 percent in earlier trade. It briefly fell into negative territory in the afternoon.
The broader Topix rose 0.2 percent to 819.43.
"Trade will probably lack any specific direction today and tomorrow. U.S. markets will be closed overnight, Obama takes office on Tuesday and the U.S. earnings season will also heat up this week," said Yumi Nishimura, manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
Shares of Honda Motor Co climbed 2.7 percent to 2,065 yen, while Advantest Corp, world's top maker of chip testers, added 2.8 percent to 1,297 yen and electronics component maker TDK Corp advanced 2.4 percent to 3,470 yen.
Toshiba powered 6 percent higher to 409 yen.
Sharp Corp rose 1.9 percent to 745 yen after comments by rival LG Display Co Ltd raised hopes that the downturn in the liquid crystal display (LCD) industry may have passed its worst.
LG Display said on Friday the LCD market had hit a bottom and TV panel prices could recover in coming months.
Kao shares fell 1.2 percent to 2,495 yen, while Japan Tobacco shed 3.7 percent to 267,000 yen.
