Nikkei gains 0.5 per cent on techs

Japan’s Nikkei average rose 0.5 per cent on Tuesday,buoyed by gains in chip-linked stocks such as Advantest after a bullish outlook from flash memory maker SanDisk Corp pushed up shares of their US peers.

But trade was cautious throughout the day,with the Nikkei swinging into negative territory earlier,due to worries about the outlook for the US economy following a mixed bag of data.

Investors were also waiting for Friday’s US non-farm payrolls report,the most closely watched measure of the country’s labor market.

The benchmark Nikkei rose 49.78 points to 10,221.84,after falling as low as 10,150.30 at one stage.

The broader Topix added 0.4 per cent to 902.71.