Nikkei rises above 15,500 as Sony adds to gains

TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) The Nikkei average rose 1 percent to over 15,500 early on Monday as Sony Corp. extended gains from last week while easing worries about U.S. interest rates helped exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp.

On a busy day of earnings reports on Monday quarterly results will include those from Mitsui&Co. Ltd., Nippon Steel Corp., Japan Tobacco Inc., Oji Paper Co. Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corp., Nikko Cordial Corp., Mitsui Fudosan Co. Ltd., Sumitomo Chemical Co.

Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.

Government data released just before the opening showed Japan's industrial production rose 1.9 percent in June from a month earlier. That was higher than a median market forecast for a 1.3 percent increase.

The Nikkei was up 1.08 percent or 165.90 points at 15,508.77 as of 0007 GMT, its highest intraday level since July 10. The TOPIX index was up 1.08 percent at 1,576.31.

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