Nikkei set to rise after U.S. shares rally

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average is likely to rise on Tuesday after U.S. shares surged due to comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that reinforced expectations that interest rates would stay low.

One stock to watch may be Canon (7751.T), which said on Monday it plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker Oce (OCEN.AS) for 730 million euros ($1.1 billion), in a challenge to rivals Ricoh (7752.T) and Xerox (XRX.N) in the hunt for growth.

"With U.S. shares having risen again, there is likely to be some buying at the start," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst for Mizuho Securities.

One factor that could weigh on Tokyo shares is the yen's rise against the dollar, Miura said.

The yen stood at 89.15 yen to the dollar on Tuesday, hovering near a one-month high of 88.75 yen hit on trading platform EBS on Monday.

The Nikkei .N225 was likely to trade in a range of roughly 9,700 to 9,900, said Miura at Mizuho Securities. It rose 0.2 percent to 9,791.18 on Monday.

Nikkei futures traded in Chicago finished at 9,880 compared with the Osaka close of 9,800.

Commodities-linked shares may attract some buying following gold's surge to a record high above $1,140 an ounce on Monday, and in the wake of oil's rise, Miura said.

Bernanke repeated on Monday the Fed was likely to keep interest rates exceptionally low for "an extended period," a pledge that weighed on the U.S. dollar and drove investors to snap up shares of natural resource companies as prices of global commodities -- from gold to wheat -- shot higher.

The U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX gained 1.45 percent on Monday and closed above the psychologically important 1,100 level for the first time since October 2008. .N

(Editing by Joseph Radford)