Japan stocks rise, banks up on brokerage upgrade
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TOKYO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose slightly on Wednesday, poised to break a five-session losing streak, as banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) gained on a broker upgrade and steel shares jumped on reports of closer capital ties.
Trading house giant Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) also rose following a bullish brokerage report, but the market's gains were offset somewhat by chip-related firms such as Advantest Corp (6857.T), which fell on weak order data.
"I see moves of a technical rebound today, but they lack power," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.
He said the Tokyo market has been increasingly following overseas markets, opening in line with Wall Street's close and in the afternoon session influenced by the Asian markets' opening, which in turn tracks the U.S. market.
"What I can say about the recent Tokyo market is that it is spineless. It was osteoporosis but now it has no bones," he said.
The fragile sentiment was witnessed at the opening, when the market was expected to open higher on Wall Street gains but sank instead.
"There was relatively sizable selling on blue chips by a fund, and that spoiled the sentiment," said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
"I think the market has digested it by midafternoon, but it had held the market down."
The benchmark Nikkei .N225 ended the morning session almost flat at 15,214.25 and the broader TOPIX rose 0.4 percent to 1,475.07.
The Nikkei average lost 5.2 percent in the previous five losing sessions.
The chip-tester maker Advantest lost 1.6 percent to 3,090 yen after the industry group said orders for chip gear rose in November but remained short of sales. [ID:nT142019].
Chip-making equipment firm Tokyo Electron Ltd (8035.T) was also traded lower, down 1.3 percent at 6,630 yen.
Trade was light, with 800 million shares changing hands, compared with last week's average of 1 billion. Declining shares beat advancers by 896 to 673.
BANKS UP
Japan's three largest banks rose after Credit Suisse analyst Shinichi Ina lifted his ratings on Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Financial Group Inc (8411.T) to "outperform" from "neutral", saying current valuations were appealing.
Mitsubishi UFJ rose 1.1 percent to 1,053 yen and Mizuho Financial rose 0.6 percent to 539,000 yen. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T), on which Credit Suisse kept an "outperform" rating, rose 1.6 percent to 843,000 yen.
Steelmakers jumped after the Nikkei business daily said Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) and two other domestic partners would bolster capital ties to counter the rapid growth of ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS). [ID:nT179025]
Shares of Nippon Steel gained 2.9 percent to 634 yen. The two partners, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd (5405.T) rose 2.9 percent to 464 yen, Kobe Steel Ltd (5406.T) climbed 2.3 percent to 350 yen. Nippon Steel rival JFE Holdings (5411.T) also rose, gaining 3.9 percent to 5,380 yen.
NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T) rose 1.7 percent to 179,000 yen on news that Japan's top mobile phone carrier has held talks with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) about the possibility of selling Apple's popular iPhone in Japan. [ID:nT157688]
Apple is also in talks with No. 3 mobile carrier Softbank Corp (9984.T) about launching the iPhone, but both have balked over the share of subscriber revenue that Apple is demanding, sources said on Tuesday. Shares of Softbank fell 0.7 percent to 2,310 yen.
