U.S. Uncertainty Caps Rise

The Nikkei stock average on Thursday pulled further away from a six-month low hit this week,helped by hopes of an improvement in Europe's debt situation but the rise was tempered by continuing uncertainty about the U.S.economic outlook.  

It was a second straight day of gains for the benchmark average, one which also yielded a possible sign that foreigners are turning less bearish towards the market.    Nine foreign securities houses placed net buy orders, albeit by a slim margin, before the start of trade on Thursday,

following 29 trading sessions of net selling.

       

But shares of machinery makers such as industrial robot maker Fanuc Corp weakened after Japan's core machinery orders fell in July at twice the pace economists' expected.

       

Tokyo trade could stay within a relatively narrow range ahead of Friday's settlement of Nikkei futures and options contracts expiring in September, said Hirano. The closely watched settlement price is calculated from the opening prices of the 225 shares in the Nikkei average.       

Investors are looking ahead to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on Thursday after the U.S. market close, to hear his administration's plans to boost the economy.    

Fanuc was down 2.1% at 11,770 yen and construction machinery maker Komatsu shed 1.7% to 1,885 yen after the machinery orders data raised concerns about the outlook for corporate capital investment although the concerns were not enough to push other sectors lower.  

Volume was moderate, with 683 million shares traded, on track to fall slightly short of last week's average daily trading volume of 1.81 billion shares. Weekly data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Thursday

that foreigners were net sellers of Japanese stocks to the tune of 87.7 billion yen in the week ending Sept 3, the sixth straight week of selling. That was the longest such streak since May-June 2010, but last week's net sales shrunk sharply from the previous week's 338 billion yen.