Japan stocks climb on weaker yen, Wall Street rise

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average was up 257.07 points, or 2.8 percent, to 9,371.67 at the end of the morning session. The broader Topix index added 4.5 percent at 951.88.

In New York, investors believing that Wall Street is on the verge of a year-end rally piled into the market Tuesday, sending the Dow up 3.3 percent to 9,625.28 in its biggest Election Day rally ever.

A falling yen boosted shares of major exporters including automakers and consumer electronics firms. Toyota Motor Corp. rose 8.1 percent, Canon Inc. jumped 11.7 percent and Sony Corp. advanced 6.3 percent.

The dollar was trading at 99.70 yen Wednesday morning, up from the 98-yen zone the previous day in Asia.

Sanyo Electric Co. surged 18 percent after being untraded Tuesday due to a rush of buy orders triggered by weekend reports that the company may be bought by rival Panasonic Corp.

A Sanyo-Panasonic entity would create Japan's biggest electronics maker, surpassing Hitachi Ltd., and would also be among the biggest in the world. Officials from both companies denied Tuesday that any deal has been reached.