Nikkei seen hitting fresh 4-1/2 year high on strong US jobs data

TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - The Nikkei share average is expected to rise on Monday following surprisingly strong U.S. jobs data, with a weaker yen likely to fuel gains in exporters and push the benchmark past the 4-1/2 year high it hit on Friday. Market players said the Nikkei was likely to trade between 12,250 and 12,450 after Nikkei futures in Chicago closed at 12,345, up 1 percent from the close in Osaka of 12,220. The benchmark is also expected to rise sharply at the open after foreign brokerages put in a net 31.5 million buy orders for Japanese shares. U.S. indexes were at or near all-time highs after data showed that 236,000 jobs were created in February, well above a consensus expectation of 160,000, while unemployment dropped to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008. Signs of an authentic recovery in the U.S. labour market are likely to bolster sentiment among investors in the Japanese market, which is already riding a bullish streak on expectations of aggressive easing by the Bank of Japan under incoming governor Haruhiko Kuroda. Those expectations have helped the yen slide to 96 versus the dollar - its weakest since August 2009 - boding well for exporters' overseas earnings when repatriated. "The Topix's 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is now 13.3, which implies that investors are pricing in a 50 to 60 percent increase in profits for companies, based on the weaker yen," said Masayuki Doshida, a senior market analyst at Rakuten Securities. "However, that means Japanese shares are no longer looking so cheap compared to U.S. or German stocks, which may blunt the rally," he added. The Nikkei jumped 2.6 percent on Friday to 12,283.62, a level not seen since early September 2008. That took it to its biggest weekly gain since December 2011, of 5.8 percent.

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