Nikkei climbs on lower oil, higher dollar, data

(Updates to midmorning)

TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average climbed 0.7 percent on Tuesday, buoyed by a combination of lower oil prices, unexpectedly strong machinery orders data, and a stronger dollar that boosted Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and fellow exporters.

Softbank Corp (9984.T), Japan's third-biggest mobile phone operator, climbed nearly 4 percent after saying on Tuesday that it would start selling Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) new iPhone in Japan from July 11 [ID:nTKV003113].

Machinery shares were strong after Japan's core machinery orders rose a faster-than-expected 5.5 percent in April, rebounding from a two-month streak of declines. [ID:nTKU003337]

"We're seeing an easing of all the worrying factors: oil's lower, the dollar's rising fast, and machinery orders were good," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities.

"There's also some encouragement from the fact that the Nikkei fell only 2 percent on Monday even though Wall Street fell 3 percent before the weekend, showing that the market here is still relatively resilient."

But market players said that strong rises were unlikely at this point, citing growing inflation worries around the world.

By midmorning the benchmark Nikkei .N225 had gained 121.99 points to 14,303.37. The broader Topix was up 0.9 percent at 1,409.44.

The dollar jumped to a three-month high against the yen JPY= after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recent rise in oil prices was adding to inflation risks, stoking expectations for interest rate hikes this year [ID:nNAT004117].

Honda rose 1.6 percent to 3,780 yen and industrial robot maker Fanuc (6954.T) was up 1.1 percent at 11,370 yen, both of them among the top three contributors to the Nikkei 225 by volume weight.

On top was Softbank, which rose 3.3 percent to 1,917 yen.

Inpex (1605.T) fell 2.2 percent to 1.32 million yen. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Chris Gallagher)