Tokyo stocks seen gaining, Nintendo may rise

TOKYO, Apr 27 (Reuters) Tokyo stocks are seen rising further on Friday, with some better-than-expected results helping to ease concerns about corporate profits and after data showed that foreign investors were net stock buyers last week.

Shares of Nintendo Co. Ltd. may rise after the Japanese video game maker posted a nearly eightfold rise in quarterly operating profit on vigorous sales of its DS handheld games, and forecast stronger-than-expected growth this year.

[ID:nT74663] ''The market is likely to advance,'' Hiroyuki Nakai, chief strategist at Tokai Tokyo Securities.

''Up until now investors have been worried about earnings results, but those concerns are being factored in ... also foreign investors were net buyers last week.'' Shares of JFE Holdings Inc. and Shiseido Co. Ltd.

have been among the gainers, helped by better-than-expected results.

Overseas investors bought a net 515.77 billion yen worth of stocks here last week, Tokyo Stock Exchange data showed on Thursday. That would likely relieve concerns that foreigners -- a key driver of the market -- were abandoning Japanese equities.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are among the firms to report earnings on Friday.

The Nikkei <.n225> was likely to move between 17,350 and 17,550 on Friday, market participants said.

The benchmark rose 1.12 percent to 17,429.17 on Thursday.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closing above 13,000 for the second time on record. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 0.26 percent.

STOCKS TO WATCH -- Nikko Cordial Corp. Citigroup said on Friday its takeover bid for Nikko Cordial had succeeded after Nikko shareholders tendered a majority of the brokerage's stock. [ID:nTFA002835] -- Central Finance Co. Ltd. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mitsui&Co. Ltd. plan to increase their stakes in Central Finance to become the leading shareholders of the consumer credit company, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

-- Victor Co. of Japan (JVC) JVC, a loss-making electronics maker targeted by private equity firm TPG, said it would delay giving an annual profit forecast until next month because it is considering restructuring steps. [ID:nT52114] -- Toshiba Corp. The world's No. 2 maker of NAND flash chips on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 7 percent rise in annual operating profit on sales of CT scans and train systems, but it kept to a cautious outlook for the year ahead. [ID:nT111299] -- Fujitsu Ltd. Fujitsu on Thursday posted a 0.3 percent operating profit rise for 2006/07 on tighter margins in servers and hard drives, and its outlook for 2007/08 missed consensus forecasts.

[ID:nT111299] -- Nomura Holdings Inc. Japan's top brokerage reported a worse-than-expected 74 percent fall in quarterly profit on Thursday, hurt by losses at its U.S. mortgage business. [ID:nT44884] -- Nissan Motor Co. Nissan on Thursday posted its first annual profit drop under Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn's watch and delayed its highly publicised mid-term targets by a year after sales collapsed in the United States and Japan. [ID:nT338154] -- Doutor Coffee Co. Japan's largest coffee chain said it would take over Nippon Restaurant System Inc. in a 4 million stock deal, the latest consolidation step in a shrinking restaurant industry. [ID:nT160880] -- Softbank Corp. Softbank said on Thursday annual sales more than doubled in the year ended March to 2.54 trillion yen (.4 billion) after adding gains of the mobile phone unit it bought from Britain's Vodafone Group .

-- Acom Co. The consumer lender said on Thursday its net loss for the year ended March would be bigger than previously forecast as it hiked reserves against legal claims by borrowers. [ID:nT162723] -- Inaba Denkisangyo Co. U.S. hedge fund Steel Partners said on Thursday it has asked Japanese electronic equipment trading firm Inaba Denkisangyo to pay a final dividend of 244 yen per share for the year that ended in March. [ID:nT163889] REUTERS DKS BST0527