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Tokyo stocks up by break as weak yen boosts exporters

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks rose on Thursday morning as exporters got a lift from a cheaper yen, but Toshiba dived as its troubled US nuclear unit reportedly began preparing for a possible bankruptcy.

The dollar surged against the yen briefly on Wednesday following a robust report by payroll services firm ADP, whose data are seen as a good predictor of the Labour Department's monthly employment report due on Friday.

US private-sector hiring posted the biggest increase in nearly six years last month, while the goods-producing sector saw record job growth, the firm said on Wednesday.

With a March interest rate hike widely expected, investors are closely watching the official jobs figures for clues about future hikes.

"I expect good numbers to come out from the jobs data on Friday," said Mitsushige Akino, an executive officer at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"The US economy is doing well, and if long-term yields rise as the speed of rate hikes increase, the yen should weaken. Japanese stocks have no reason to fall further," he told Bloomberg News.

The dollar rose to ¥114.45 on Thursday from ¥114.31 in New York, where it at one point headed towards the ¥115 mark.

A weak yen is positive for Japanese exporters as it inflates repatriated profits, boosting demand for their shares.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 29.07 points, to 19 283.10 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues rose 2.20 points, to 1552.45.

Sony added 0.88% to ¥3 544 while Nintendo tacked on 0.72% to 25,005 yen. Toyota rose 0.51 percent to ¥6 403.

Following sharp drops in oil prices, energy explorer Inpex fell 1.88% to ¥1 093 and Japan Petroleum was off 1.67% to end the morning at ¥2 634.

Toshiba dived 6.43% to ¥206.5 after a news report said that Westinghouse Electric, Toshiba's US nuclear power plant developer, is taking a serious look at bankruptcy proceedings.

The plunge also came after Japan's Asahi newspaper quoted an anonymous senior company official as saying the chances are only 50-50 that the troubled firm will make a March 14 deadline to submit an earnings report for the quarter ended December.

Toshiba has been reeling from huge losses from its US nuclear business.

The Asahi said there is a possibility that Toshiba could suffer tens of billions of yen in fresh losses if the group failed to meet the end-of-2020 deadline for completion of four nuclear plants in the United States.

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