Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.7 percent on Friday as exporters climbed after good news on U.S. jobs renewed hopes about the pace of economic recovery and as tech shares rose after gains by their U.S. peers, but profit-taking weighed on gains.
Pioneer Corp advanced nearly 9 percent 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, and NEC Corp climbed despite saying it plans to raise up to $1.5 billion in shares.
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. The Nikkei finished the week down 2.4 percent, its second straight negative week. It has lost 4.8 percent in the last two weeks.
"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."
T&D Holdings Inc dropped 10.8 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.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 71.91 points to 9,789.35 on Friday after marking a one-month closing low on Thursday. The broader Topix fell 0.1 percent to 874.01.
The Nikkei fell behind the rest of Asia, with the MSCI Index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan rising 1.8 percent as of 0609 GMT. Some analysts said that with earnings mostly over, Japanese markets are searching for new drivers.
"Japanese stocks have been weighed down relative to others as the profitability of Japanese companies is lagging behind companies in other Asian countries," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a supervisor at Okasan Securities' investment strategy section. BANKS SLIP, NEC SURGES
Weekly jobs data released on Thursday showed that the number of people filing jobless claims fell to a 10-month low last week.
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.
Bank shares slipped on what some analysts said were persistent worries that they too might be forced into fund raising, though others said this was only an excuse to take profits after recent rises and most pared their losses.
No. 2 bank Mizuho Financial Group lost 1.1 percent to 179 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shed 0.3 percent to 3,160 yen. Top lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was flat after erasing earlier losses.
In other banking news, Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd and Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc said they are in talks to merge, which would create Japan's largest trust bank with scale to better compete in the crowded asset management industry.
Chuo Mitsui lost 2.2 percent to 313 yen and Sumitomo Trust edged down 0.8 percent.
NEC surged 10.1 percent to 273 yen. Analysts said that since the news NEC might raise funds had been out in the market for months and sharply depressed the share price, the actual announcement was factored in and short-covering emerged.
Canon and other exporters gained after Wall Street jumped on the jobs data, with Canon gaining 1.8 percent to 3,410 yen and Honda Motor Co up 0.5 percent to 2,800 yen. Sony Corp gained 1.6 percent.
Trade fell off a bit, with 1.9 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo exchange's first section compared to last week's daily average of 2 billion yen. Declining shares outpaced advancing ones by over 2 to 1.
