Tokyo Stocks Surge in Morning

Tokyo, Feb. 2 (Jiji Press)--Stocks rose sharply on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday morning, thanks to higher overseas stock prices in overnight trading and receding concerns over tensions in Egypt.
At the morning close, the 225-issue Nikkei average stood up 196.00 points, or 1.91 pct, at 10,470.50. On Tuesday, the key market gauge rose 36.58 points.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was up 17.26 points, or 1.89 pct, at 930.78, after gaining 3.44 points the previous day.
The market attracted buying from the onset of trading, especially aided by an overnight surge in U.S. shares, brokers said. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 12,000 mark on Tuesday for the first time in about two years and seven month.
The market was also supported by easing of excessive concerns over a possible spread of the unrest in Egypt to neighboring countries after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday he will not run in the next presidential election, expected for September, brokers said.

"The morning rise was led by overseas investors who moved to buy Japanese shares in order to rebalance their investment portfolios amid improvement in market sentiment," said Masashi Oguchi of Mito Securities Co.'s Investment Information Department.
Investors were encouraged by earnings recovery of U.S. and Japanese companies, which helped the market gain ground despite the yen's strength against the dollar, brokers said.
As investors have factored in the effects on Japanese corporate earnings of the dollar's fall below 82 yen, the market maintained its upward momentum in the morning, Oguchi said.
The dollar moved around 81.50 yen in the morning, down from 81.80-83 yen at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ryuta Otsuka, general manager at the information and research division of Toyo Securities Co., cautioned that no optimism is warranted about the situation in Egypt. "A close attention is still needed," he said.
Winners overwhelmed losers 1,493 to 102 on the TSE's first section in the morning, while 62 issues were unchanged.
Half-day volume came to 1,187 million shares.

Megabanks Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui drew strong buying, along with brokerage houses Nomura, Daiwa and Mizuho Securities.
Automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan were also upbeat.
High-tech makers Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony and Canon climbed, as did chip-related companies Elpida, Tokyo Electron and Advantest.
Oil refiners Idemitsu Kosan gained ground a day after revising up its group net profit projection to 40 billion yen from 26 billion yen for the business year to March mainly due to a rise in crude oil prices.
Other major winners included telecom carries NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank.
By contrast, popular mobile phone game site operator DeNA was hit by profit-taking, after reporting favorable earnings on Tuesday.
Also on the minus side was high-tech company Fanuc.