Nikkei rises 0.8 percent after opening lower

Tokyo, June 14 : After opening lower, the Nikkei turned around on Wednesday morning, rising 0.78 percent as investors returned to shares in insurers and securities firms on the view that their prices had fallen too far.

Sentiment was boosted after the Nikkei held above the 14,000 mark at the open, seen as a key psychological level, said Katsuhiko Kodama, a senior strategist at Toyo Securities.

''I think there was a lot of dip buying by institutional investors at the 14,000 mark ... I think prices have fallen far enough that investors think it is OK to buy again.'' Still, the gains were limited, and resources stocks such as gold producer Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. were hit by the continued rout in global commodities markets.

The Nikkei share average was up 110.95 points at 14,329.55 as of 0110 GMT, recovering some ground after posting its worst one-day percentage fall in two years on Tuesday.

However, the benchmark is still about 19 percent down from April 7, when it hit its high for the year.

The TOPIX index was up 0.75 percent at 1,469.19.

Shares of insurer T&D Holdings Inc. rose 6 percent to 7,960 yen, recouping most of its losses from the previous session.

Reflecting the midmorning turnaround, Toyota Motor Corp. and some other exporters picked up on a rise in the dollar against the yen, despite lingering concerns about the outlook for the U.S. market after a surprisingly high reading on U.S. core inflation in the May producer prices survey.

Concerns about the U.S. economy have been so strong that investors initially overlooked the weaker yen and instead sold exporters, said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, chief strategist at the research division of Rakuten Securities.

The yen was at 115.17 to the dollar, not far off the nearly two-month high of 115.44 hit on Tuesday. A weaker yen benefits exporters as it boosts profits when earnings from abroad are brought home.

After an early fall, Toyota, the world's most profitable auto maker, was up 0.72 percent at 5,570 yen.

On the other hand, Sumitomo Metal Mining fell 4.9 percent to 1,182 yen after gold saw its sharpest one-day drop in 15 years in New York on Tuesday.

Reuters