Nikkei set to rise after U.S. shares rally

TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average is likely to rise on Tuesday after U.S. shares surged due to comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that reinforced expectations that interest rates would stay low. One stock to watch may be Canon, which said on Monday it plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker Oce for 730 million euros ($1.1 billion), in a challenge to rivals Ricoh and Xerox in the hunt for growth. "With U.S. shares having risen again, there is likely to be some buying at the start," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst for Mizuho Securities. One factor that could weigh on Tokyo shares is the yen's rise against the dollar, Miura said. The yen stood at 89.15 yen to the dollar on Tuesday, hovering near a one-month high of 88.75 yen hit on trading platform EBS on Monday. The Nikkei was likely to trade in a range of roughly 9,700 to 9,900, said Miura at Mizuho Securities. It rose 0.2 percent to 9,791.18 on Monday. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago finished at 9,880 compared with the Osaka close of 9,800. Commodities-linked shares may attract some buying following gold's surge to a record high above $1,140 an ounce on Monday, and in the wake of oil's rise, Miura said. Bernanke repeated on Monday the Fed was likely to keep interest rates exceptionally low for "an extended period," a pledge that weighed on the U.S. dollar and drove investors to snap up shares of natural resource companies as prices of global commodities -- from gold to wheat -- shot higher. The U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.45 percent on Monday and closed above the psychologically important 1,100 level for the first time since October 2008. -----------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2217 GMT ----------------- INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1109.3 1.45% 15.820 USD/JPY 89.07 -0.02% -0.020 10-YR US TSY YLD 3.349 -- -0.074 SPOT GOLD 1139.15 0.01% 0.100 US CRUDE 78.91 3.35% 2.560 DOW JONES 10406.96 1.33% 136.49 ------------------------------------------------------------- > Wall St jumps as Bernanke sees rates staying low > Dollar down broadly; Bernanke rate outlook weighs > Weak economic data, Bernanke remarks spur rally > Gold hits record above $1,140/oz as dollar slips > Oil settles up 3 pct on dollar, U.S. consumer data STOCKS TO WATCH -- GS Yuasa Corp GS Yuasa plans to invest more than 50 billion yen to build a new factory to produce lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday. -- Astellas Pharma Inc The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved NeurogesX Inc's Qutenza pain patch for shingles, the company said on Monday. In June, NeurogesX Inc announced a distribution agreement with Japan's Astellas Pharma Inc to sell Qutenza, in the European Economic Area, the Middle East and Africa. (Editing by Joseph Radford) (([e-mail]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]; [phone])) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to [e-mail])) Keywords: MARKETS JAPAN STOCKS Reuters Terminal users can see other related news and rates by double-clicking on: All Nikkei indices All shares listed on Nikkei-225 N225 index TOPIX index Nikkei Japan 1000 TOPIX sector data Nikkei 300 index TOPIX futures data Osaka N225 data Chicago N225 data Top 30 by volume Top 30 by value Total volume Total value 1st section sector RICs All TSE weighted avg Top 30 gainers by pct Top 30 losers by pct Top 30 net gainers Top 30 net losers Active Japanese stocks Japan economic indicators ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS: Pan-Asia Japan S.Korea S.E. Asia Hong Kong Taiwan Australia/NZ India China OTHER MARKETS: Wall Street Gold Currency Eurostocks Oil JP bonds ADR Report LME metals US bonds Stocks News US Stocks News Europe DIARIES & DATA: IPO diary & data Asia earnings diary U.S. earnings diary European diary Japan diary Wall Street Week Ahead Eurostocks Week Ahead TOP NEWS: For top Asian company news: Top News Japan U.S. company news Europe company news Forex news Global Economy news All Equity news Tech, Media, Telecoms Banking news Politics/General news Asia Macro data A multimedia version of Reuters Top News is available at: http://topnews.session.rservices.com LIVE PRICES & DATA: World stocks Currencies Dow Jones/NASDAQ Debt FTSE 100 LME price overview Yen/dollar (Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 * Reuters Plus: from your WebDSS screen For more information on Top News, visit http://topnews.reuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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