Nikkei rises 2 pct as techs, brokers rebound

TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) The Nikkei average rose more than 2 percent on Thursday on gains in tech stocks such as Canon Inc. and brokerage shares, helped by a recovery on Wall Street.

Goro Kumagai, a senior strategist at Mizuho Securities, said the momentum in U.S. stocks is now a barometer for investors' confidence in equities after a steep sell-off recently around the globe.

''It looks like the U.S. market will set a direction here for a while. There is no strong buy factor at home, and that was reflected in a steeper fall in Japanese shares than in other major markets in the recent sell-off,'' he said.

The two main factors behind the recent selling of Japanese shares were weaker than expect growth in corporate earnings in the business year that started on April 1 and a strong market performance last year that made it easy to lock in profits, he added.

The Nikkei was up 323.73 points at 14,967.99 as of 0103 GMT. It had fallen in the previous three sessions, losing 1.58 percent in total.

The broader TOPIX index was up 1.77 percent at 1,532.12.

Canon, the world's biggest digital camera maker, was up 1.9 percent at 7,870 yen.

Electronics maker Toshiba Corp. gained 1.8 percent to 724 yen.

The company is to hold a briefing later in the day on its launch of a next-generation, high-definition optical disc recorder based on the HD DVD format.

Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. climbed 4.2 percent to 250 yen after the consumer electronics firm said on Wednesday it would invest more than 0 million in its solar cell business over five years, aiming to cash in on growing demand for the renewable energy.

Brokerages were the best-performing sector among the 33 industries on the Tokyo exchange's first section. The sector subindex ISECU.was up 2.73 percent.

No.1 brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc. rose 3.2 percent to 2,105 yen and third-ranked Nikko Cordial Corp. gained 3.8 percent to 1,512 yen.

REUTERS VJ BST0645