Japanese stocks likely to rise, tracking Wall St

TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks are likely to rise
on Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, with Mizuho
Financial Group (8411.T: Quote, Profile, Research) among the stocks in the spotlight.

Japan's second-largest bank booked its first quarterly loss
in five years and said it aimed to buy back up to 400 billion yen
($3.8 billion) of its own shares, equal to about 6.5 percent of
its market value in the current year. It added that it may buy
back another 400 billion yen worth in the year to March 2010.
[ID:nT237906]

"After four straight days of gains, the market is nearing the
level of overheating, but market energy is building up at the
same time," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equity
marketing at Nikko Cordial Securities, referring to a rise in
trade volume.

"This is a good trend. It means the market has power to
absorb selling by profit-takers."

Market analysts expect the benchmark Nikkei average .N225
to move between 14,150 and 14,500 on Friday.

Nikkei futures traded in Chicago 2NKc1 closed at 14,375 on
Thursday, 115 points above their close in Osaka JNIc1.

Japan's January-March gross domestic product data is due out
before the open, with economists forecasting the country's
economic growth to have slowed to 0.6 percent during the quarter.
[ID:T211810]

Japan's No. 3 bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research),
is among the firms to announce results later in the day.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2253 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1423.57 1.06% 14.910
USD/JPY <JPY=> 104.8 0.11% 0.110
10-YR US TSY YLD <US10YT=RR> 3.82 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD <XAU=> 882.9 0.28% 2.450
US CRUDE CLc1 124.38 0.21% 0.280
DOW JONES .DJI 12992.66 0.73% 94.28
-------------------------------------------------------------
> Oil's fall, techs' gain drive stocks higher [.N]
> Yen rises broadly amid waning risk demand [USD/]
> Bonds gain on soft manufacturing, jobs data [US/]
> Gold jumps 2 pct on surging oil, firm euro [GOL/]
> Oil slips on natural gas stockbuild, profit taking [O/R]
STOCKS TO WATCH

-- NEC Corp (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

Japan's biggest maker of telecoms network equipment, doubled
its quarterly profit, helped by cost cuts and a healthy IT
services business, but its outlook for the current year missed
expectations. [ID:nT299809]

-- Kenwood Corp (6765.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

The chairman of the electronics maker said on Thursday his
company could take a stake in D&M Holdings Inc (6735.T: Quote, Profile, Research), the
maker of Denon and Marantz audio equipment. [ID:nT286669]

-- Ricoh Co Ltd (7752.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

Office equipment maker Ricoh said on Thursday it would buy
out minority shareholders in its subsidiary Ricoh Elemex Corp
(7765.T: Quote, Profile, Research) through a share swap.

Ricoh will exchange 0.5 share for each Ricoh Elemex share,
the firm said. Ricoh holds 56.7 percent of Ricoh Elemex.

-- Calsonic Kansei Corp (7248.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

The auto parts maker forecast an 8.5 percent decline in its
operating profit for the year ending in March 2009, hit by sharp
rise in raw materials costs.

For the year just ended, its operating profit rose 15.9
percent to 14.2 billion yen, thanks to sales growth in China,
Thailand and other emerging markets.

-- Kojima Co Ltd (7513.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

The electric goods retailer said on Thursday it has likely
posted a net loss of 2.3 billion yen for the year ended in March,
a fall from its previous forecast of a net profit of 1.2 billion
yen, hit by weak store sales and writedowns of its assets.

-- Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research)

Nintendo's Wii remained the best-selling console, selling
714,000 units in U.S. in April, far more than Microsoft Corp's
(MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) PlayStation 3
combined, data from market research firm NPD showed on Thursday.
[ID:nN15362612]

-- Takefuji Corp (8564.T: Quote, Profile, Research)

Japan's financial regulator will order the consumer lender to
improve operations for failing to keep proper records and for
using improper collection practices, the Nikkei business daily
reported on Friday. [ID:nT337377]
(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Hugh Lawson)