Nikkei dips despite Wall St jump, firm yen weighs
* Tokyo shares still underperforming overseas peers
* Yen near 1-mth high vs dollar, weighs on exporters
* Canon climbs on plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker
TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average dipped 0.1 percent on Tuesday as the yen's firmness against the dollar weighed on exporters and offset gains in some commodities-linked shares.
Bucking the trend was Canon Inc (7751.T), which climbed 2.7 percent to 3,460 yen after it 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). [ID:nLG315826]
But Tokyo shares were lacklustre in comparison with their U.S. peers, which rose to fresh 13-month closing highs after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reinforced expectations that interest rates would stay low to spur growth. "The way it has been recently is that Tokyo shares do not get a straightforward boost from gains in overseas stock markets," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
"What people are looking at pretty closely today is the foreign exchange market, with the dollar having hit levels below 89 yen," Ishiguro said.
The Nikkei .N225 ended morning trade down 0.1 percent or 13.76 points at 9,777.42, still stuck near the bottom of its range over the past month between 9,628.67 and 10,397.69. The broader Topix dipped 0.4 percent to 857.16.
In contrast, 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]
Export-heavy sectors such as electrical machinery .IELEC.T and transport equipment makers .ITEQP.T dipped.
But the wholesales sub-index .IWHOL.T edged higher, with trading house Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) rising 1.3 percent to 1,994 yen after the previous day's surge in commodities including oil prices. (Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Michael Watson)
