Nikkei up 0.6 pct, Fanuc gains on machinery data

TOKYO, July 9 (Reuters) A stronger reading than expected on Japanese machinery orders pushed up machinery stocks such as industrial robot maker Fanuc Ltd. on Monday, sending the Nikkei average 0.55 percent higher.

Shares of Toshiba Corp. climbed nearly 3 percent after a company source said on Saturday the firm is in talks to sell 10 percent of its stake in nuclear power unit Westinghouse to Kazakh state firm Kazatomprom for roughly 60 billion yen (7 million).

''A rise in U.S. stocks and the machinery data lifted the market at the opening, but gains are likely to be limited ahead of a string of economic indicators later in the week and the election,'' said Yutaka Miura, deputy manager of the equity information department at Shinko Securities.

''The stronger-than-expected machinery data would also likely cause concerns about rate hikes by the Bank of Japan, capping a further advance in today's market.'' The benchmark Nikkei was up 99.35 points at 18,240.29. The broader TOPIX index added 0.53 percent to 1,789.02.

Among a series of economic events, Japan's corporate goods price index for June will be announced on Wednesday, and Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui is scheduled to speak at a news conference on Thursday after a two-day meeting of the central bank's policy board.

An election for half the members of the upper house of Japan's parliament will be held on July 29.

Toshiba was up 2.7 percent at 1,081 yen. The nation's second-biggest maker of industrial electronics took a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse for .16 billion late last year.

Japan's core private-sector machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, rose 5.9 percent in May from the previous month, beating economists' consensus forecast for a 2.3 percent increase, government data showed on Monday.

Machinery stocks advanced with Fanuc up 0.9 percent at 12,810 yen, while Komatsu Ltd. rose 2.4 precent to 3,820 yen and Okuma Holdings Inc. gained 2.2 percent to 2,100 yen.

Elsewhere, shares in TOC Inc. added 1.8 percent to 1,271 yen after the Nikkei newspaper said on Saturday that real estate investor DaVinci Advisors has secured the support of shareholders holding about 47 percent of TOC, nearly enough to take control of the building leasing firm.

Reuters SBA VP0638