Nikkei up but top-heavy, exporters and NEC gain

* Nikkei up but top-heavy before U.S. jobs data

* NEC surges after share sale news on short-covering

* Pioneer climbs on ratings hike, cut in fund-raising

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.9 percent on Friday as exporters such as Canon Inc (7751.T) climbed after good U.S. job news renewed hopes about the pace of economic recovery, with tech shares up after gains by their U.S. peers.

Pioneer Corp (6773.T) advanced 8 percent to 244 yen after UBS upgraded the consumer electronics company to "neutral" from "sell" after it said on Thursday that it needs to raise less funds than previously planned.

But the market's gains were limited by wariness ahead of U.S. jobs data due on Friday as well as by longer-term uncertainty about the Japanese market, which some analysts said reflected concern about more potential corporate fundraising. "Japanese shares aren't rising compared to the rest of Asia because there aren't a lot of merits for investors, they aren't going to make money due to fundraising," said Tomomi Yamashita, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. "As long as this funding risk is there, nobody's going to want to buy even with good earnings results. They'll just buy companies that are fiscally sound."

In one example, T&D Holdings Inc (8795.T) dropped 11 percent to 2,115 yen, becoming the biggest drag on the Nikkei 225, after the insurance company gave notice on Thursday that it may raise up to 120 billion yen ($1.3 billion) to repay debt by selling new shares. [ID:nT182153]

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 rose 84.81 points to 9,802.25 on Friday after marking a one-month closing low on Thursday, and it looked headed for its second straight week of falls.

The broader Topix rose 0.1 percent to 875.38.

Both underperformed the rest of Asia, with the MSCI Index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rising 1.6 percent as of 0428 GMT. Some analysts said that with earnings mostly over, Japanese stock markets are searching for new factors.

On Thursday, 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.

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. NEC Corp (6701.T) surged 9.3 percent to 271 yen despite Japan's biggest PC maker saying 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:nT212429]

Market analysts said that since the news that NEC might raise funds had been out in the market for several months and sharply depressed the share price, the actual announcement was factored in and a wave of short-covering emerged. Canon and other exporters gained after Wall Street jumped on the jobs data, with Canon gaining 3 percent to 4,820 yen and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) up 1.3 percent to 2,820 yen. Sony Corp (6758.T) gained 1.8 percent. (Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)