Nikkei gains but investors still wary, NEC surges

* Nikkei climbs but investor wariness limits gains

* NEC surges after says will issue up to $1.5 bln shares

* Toyota up after surprise Q2 profit, lower loss forecast

TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average rose 1.3 percent on Friday as exporters such as Canon Inc (7751.T) gained after good news on U.S. jobs renewed hopes about the pace of economic recovery, with tech shares up after gains by U.S. peers. NEC Corp (6701.T) soared over 9 percent after Japan's biggest PC maker said it plans to raise up to $1.5 billion in shares. Sources had earlier told Reuters the offer was to shore up its capital and invest in growth businesses. [ID:nTFA006491] [ID:nT210122]

On Thursday, a day before the U.S. government releases its key monthly jobs report, figures showed U.S. non-farm productivity rose more than expected in the third quarter, while a separate report showed fewer U.S. workers filed new jobless insurance claims than forecast last week, hitting a 10-month low. [ID:nN05106320]

But analysts said investors remained cautious, keeping gains capped.

"There's still some wariness among investors today, mainly due to a lot of uncertainty about the future despite the fact that recent economic data has been pretty good," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities. The benchmark Nikkei .N225 gained 121.00 points to 9,836.59 after closing at a one-month low on Thursday. The broader Topix gained 0.3 percent to 877.43.

The U.S. government is scheduled to release its key monthly jobs report on Friday, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a loss of 175,000 jobs in October, sharply below the 263,000jobs cut in the previous month. But the unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.9 percent.

"I think the market is likely to rise both if the numbers come in as forecast as well as if there's a positive surprise," Yamagishi said.

"Even though the unemployment rate is likely to hit 10 percent, this will not badly affect things since it's unavoidable, employment can't recover that fast."

One market analyst said investors who sold Nikkei futures speculatively late in the day on Thursday were likely to turn to short-covering on Friday. Market players said hedge funds were also sellers on Thursday.

NEC, which cut its full-year operating profit outlook by 40 percent last week, is hurrying to shore up a capital base that has been weakened by losses at semiconductor unit NEC Electronics (6723.T) and sluggish sales of its network systems.

Its shares rose to 270 yen after the announcement.

"Though investors were fairly cool to the idea of the share issue prior to the opening, most had figured some sort of fund-raising was needed, so it was already factored in," said Yamagishi at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

"Now the stock is rebounding both on this and in reaction to its recent sharp fall."

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) edged up 0.8 percent to 3,610 yen after it announced a surprise quarterly profit and halved its annual loss forecast on Thursday, though these may not be enough to convince investors that the worst is over for the world's No.1 carmaker. [ID:nT145640]. Canon Inc (7751.T) and other exporters rose after Wall Street jumped on the jobs data, with Canon gaining 3 percent to 4,820 yen and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) up 1.8 percent. Sony Corp (6758.T) gained 2.9 percent.