The benchmark Nikkei share average ended up 0.12 per cent at 29,730.79, while the broader Topix climbed 0.67 per cent to 1,967.43. On Tuesday, the Nikkei and Topix had closed 1.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent lower, respectively.
“Investors are buying stocks after yesterday’s (Tuesday) sharp decline. This is a natural move,” said Hideyuki Suzuki, general manager at investment research for SBI Securities.
“The news on Toshiba has sent electronics makers higher. Investors could be thinking that if the Toshiba gets delisted, they would have to shift the money to its peers.”
Toshiba is considering a $20 billion offer from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to take it private, a person familiar with the matter said, as the Japanese industrial conglomerate faces pressure from activist shareholders to improve governance.
Toshiba shares surged 18.28 per cent to their daily limit after being untraded on a glut of buy orders.
Fujitsu advanced 2.03 per cent, Hitachi gained 2.17 per cent and Sharp rose 1.65 per cent.
Shipping firm Nippon Yusen jumped 3.26 per cent after raising its profit forecast for the year ended March to 200 billion yen ($1.82 billion) from 160 billion yen.
Its peers Kawasaki Kisen advanced 4.04 per cent and Mitsui OSK Lines climbed 2.62 per cent.
Other cyclical shares also gained after the International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast to 6 per cent this year, a rate not seen since the 1970s, from 5.5 per cent earlier.
The Topix sub-index for steel makers gained the most among the 33 sub-indexes, followed by the shipping sector .
($1 = 109.6200 yen)
