Tokyo stocks seen steady as yen eyed, BOJ awaited

TOKYO, Aug 22 (Reuters) Tokyo stocks are likely to remain in a tight range on Wednesday, with investors watching to see how the yen moves and to await a decision on interest rates by the Bank of Japan.

''The Tokyo market is likely to take a pause, following mixed trade in the U.S. market on Tuesday,'' said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of equity marketing at Daiwa Securities SMBC.

The BOJ starts a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday at which it is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

The benchmark Nikkei average gained 1 percent to 15,901.34 in Tuesday's session.

Takahashi said a meeting between Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd did not yield any concrete measures and will have no impact on the market.

Nikkei futures traded in Chicago finished the previous session at 15,830.00, 40 points lower than the Osaka close pointing to a slightly lower opening.

Market participants said the Nikkei would likely trade between 15,700 and 16,000 on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.23 percent to end at 13,090.86 while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 0.51 percent at 2,521.30.

In late Tuesday trade in New York the dollar was down 0.4 percent at 114.40 yen while the euro changed hands at 154.05 yen down 0.5 percent on the day.

STOCKS TO WATCH -- D&M Holdings Inc.

Japanese audio equipment maker D&M Holdings said on Tuesday it will buy unlisted British broadcast equipment maker Calrec Audio Ltd to bring in more business from TV stations.

-- Rakuten Inc Q> Online shopping mall operator Rakuten posted an 18.3 percent fall in net profit to 5.8 billion yen (.43 million) for the six months to June due partly to a sluggish online securities business.

-- Sanyo Electric Co Ltd T> The president of Sanyo told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that its mobile phone operations will likely turn profitable in the July-September quarter, helped by brisk demand for its latest models.

Seiichiro Sano also said the company may turn to M&A to drive its overseas operations for commercial-use air conditioners and refrigerators.

-- Toyota Motor Corp T> Toyota Motor plans to sell around 10.4 million vehicles globally in 2009, helped by increasing demand in North America as well as China and other emerging economies, business daily Nikkei reported on Wednesday.

-- Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd Forest Laboratories Inc will help promote Daiichi Sankyo's experimental hypertension drug Azor in the United States, the companies said on Tuesday.

Forest will pay Daiichi Sankyo million at the outset and will receive an annual co-promotion payment based on U.S. product net sales, the companies said.

Reuters CS VP0522