Japanese stocks rise

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Friday, led by high-tech shares, including TDK Corp (6762.T), tracking overnight gains on Nasdaq.

Hitachi Ltd (6501.T) rose after the Nikkei business daily said the firm plans to sell a minority stake in its struggling hard disk drive business to U.S. investment fund Silver Lake.

Still, the gains are seen limited and the Nikkei dipped below the psychologically important 15,000 level at one point, as investors were quick to cash gains ahead of a three-day weekend.

"The Nikkei has been stuck in a thin range around 15,000, and investors are discouraged," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities.

"Many foreign investors have already gone on vacation and those who remain at the market are hesitant to increase their positions from now."

As of 0059 GMT, the benchmark Nikkei .N225 was up 0.6 percent at 15,123.23 and the broader TOPIX gained 0.1 percent to 1,458.41.

Hitachi rose 2.5 percent to 796 yen.

"The report says it's not the sale of the entire HDD business and uncertainties about the deal remain, but still it will mark a step forward in Hitachi's revival," Ushio said.

Sharp Corp (6753.T) climbed 1.7 percent to 1,934 yen after it said it was considering an alliance with Toshiba Corp (6502.T) in liquid crystal display panels.

Toshiba plans to procure large liquid crystal display panels from Sharp and is likely to withdraw from an LCD production joint venture with Hitachi and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T), the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

Toshiba fell 0.2 percent to 815 yen and Panasonic maker Matsushita was flat at 2,280 yen.

Canon Inc (7751.T) fell 1.9 percent to 5,250 yen, the biggest drag on Nikkei, after the Nikkei business daily reported the digital camera and office equipment maker will miss its profit forecasts for 2007, hit by a change in the way it calculates depreciation costs. ID:nT93431

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Mike Miller)