950808

Equities moderately move up

in Tokyo

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed moderately higher. Arbitrage-linked buying and dealers' buying of various shares played a major role in pushing up stock indices, brokers said. Foreigners' purchases of electrical shares such as NEC Corp 6701.T also contributed to higher prices.

"Selling pressure is still strong, but buy orders absorbed selling little by little," said Shunji Suesada, general manager at Yamaichi Securities.

The 225-share Nikkei average ended 223.51 points or 1.35 percent higher at 16,838.97. Turnover was 297 million shares against Monday's 237 million.

September Nikkei 225 futures rose 230 points to 16,900 with 20,225 contracts traded.

The TOPIX index ended up 11.67 points, or 0.87 percent, at 1,347.99 and the Nikkei 300 closed up 2.58 points, or 1.03 percent, to 251.95.

Shares started higher in the afternoon as higher Nikkei futures in Singapore during Tokyo's midday break triggered arbitrage-linked buying, brokers said.

Purchases by foreign investors in the late afternoon gave share prices another boost, they said.

"The market should take a breather to make good sentiment last longer, but foreign buying came and domestic investors were forced to follow suit in buying," Yamaichi's Suesada said.

"Blue chip shares such as Hitachi Ltd 6501.T and Toshiba Corp 6502.T have been edging up and sentiment is not bad," said Shuji Yasuma, general manager at Kankaku Securities.

Hitachi ended up 21 yen at 1,020 and Toshiba ended up 15 yen at 657.

But many brokers belive that more market participants and larger trade volume is needed to push up the Nikkei average through 17,000 or much higher.

Gainers outnumbered declining issues, with 612 higher, 378 lower and 173 unchanged.

The advancers were led by the warehousing, mining, credit/lease, fishery and rolling stock sectors. Only the service and shipbuilding sectors declined.

Sega Enterprises Ltd's 7964.T shares temporarily plunged more than five percent on concerns that it may conduct equity-linked financing.

But a Sega official said the company was not considering such financing.

Sega closed 150 yen down at 4,300 after falling as low as 4,220.

Hanwa Co Ltd's shares 8078.T jumped on speculative activity by individual investors. Hanwa closed 21 yen up at 325 after rising as high as 332.

Toshiba and International Business Machines Corp (IBM) IBM.N will tie up to make 64-megabit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips in the United States, a source close to the deal told Reuters. But the news had little direct impact on Toshiba shares.

The second section closed down 0.15 point, or 0.01 percent, at 1,666.42 with 11.76 million shares changing hands. -Reuter