Tokyo stocks may rise on exporters, GDP awaited

TOKYO, Aug 13 (Reuters) Japanese stocks may rebound on Monday, with exporters such as Canon Inc. gaining after U.S. stocks made up for early losses on Friday and the yen softened, but the market will also be watching April-June gross domestic product data due just before the start of trade.

Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. may be in focus after public broadcaster NHK said on its Web site on Saturday that the Japanese electronics company is in talks with a domestic mobile phone maker to sell its struggling cellphone operations.

''The market is likely to rebound to recoup last week's drop, but after regaining ground, it will likely move little,'' said Yutaka Miura, deputy manager of the equity information department at Shinko Securities.

''Investors will want to see the European and U.S. markets for further clues on trade as the recent equity sell-off originated from overseas and the market lacks domestic trading factors.'' Miura said as long as GDP comes within expectations, the data will likely have little impact on the overall market.

He added that exporters may get help as the yen hovers around 118 yen against the dollar Nikkei futures traded in Chicago finished Friday at 16,705.00, 45 points below the Osaka close.

Market participants said the Nikkei would likely trade between 16,600 and 16,900 on Monday.

The Nikkei average finished Friday down 2.37 percent at 16,764.09, the lowest close since March 16. The broader TOPIX logged the lowest close this year, passing the year-low finish booked on Jan. 11.

In late New York trade, the dollar was up 0.3 percent at 118.48 yen more than 1 yen above a low touched earlier in the session.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.23 percent to end at 13,239.54, while the Standard&Poor's 500 index inched up 0.04 percent.

STOCKS TO WATCH -- NEC Electronics Corp.

NEC Electronics aims to double its sales in China to 100 billion yen (5 million) by fiscal 2010 by boosting its operations in the market, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

-- Elpida Memory Inc.

Elpida will start making DRAM chips with 65-nanometre circuitry by March 2008, becoming the first company to begin commercial output of the advanced chips, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

-- Mizuho Financial Group Inc.

Japan's second-largest bank said its losses on subprime-related investments total about 600 million yen (.1 million).

As of the end of June, the bank had about 50 billion yen invested in securitised products, including those backed by U.S.

subprime mortgages, it said. Most of those were sold by the end of July, the bank said, leading to the 600 million yen loss.

-- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) It could take months or even longer for TEPCO's earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant in northwest Japan to restart operations, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on Friday.

The plant, the largest such facility in the world, lies above an active fault line and was shut down automatically after the quake. It is closed indefinitely for safety checks.

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