主题：【日本经济】商业信心上升，投资增加，Q403GDP增长7% -- 西风陶陶

Japanese Stocks Gain After Business Confidence Survey; Kyocera, Honda Rise

AMP's Second-Half Loss Widens to Record $2.53 Billion on U.K. Writedowns

Japanese Companies Optimistic About Economy for Second Straight Quarter

Japanese Business Sentiment Is at 5.1 Points (Update1)

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese companies were optimistic for a second straight quarter as Sharp Corp. and other exporters increase capital spending, and the economy expands at its fastest pace in 13 years.

Business confidence at large companies, which have at least 1 billion yen ($9.1 million) of capital, was at plus 5.1 points this quarter from plus 5.3 in the fourth, a Ministry of Finance business survey showed in Tokyo. A positive number means optimists outnumber pessimists. Large companies expect sentiment to rise to 8.7 points in the second quarter and to be 8.3 points in the third quarter.

Improved sentiment may help sustain economic growth, prompting Sharp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and other companies to increase the business spending that accounted for half of Japan's 7 percent annual growth in the fourth quarter, the fastest since 1990.

``Businesses are becoming more confident thanks to a recovery in capital spending and exports,'' Kakutaro Kitashiro, head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives and chairman of IBM Japan Ltd., said at a press conference Tuesday in Tokyo. ``We can see signs of a pickup in the domestic economy'' as the recovery spreads.

Matsushita, the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, said last month that net income rose 8 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, as it sold more of its Panasonic-brand digital cameras and cell phones, and raised its full-year forecast to 35 billion yen from 30 billion yen.

Business Spending

A separate finance ministry report today showed that companies increased business spending a seasonally adjusted 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the third, and current profits rose 6.7 percent. From a year earlier business spending rose 5.1 percent, and profits rose 16.9 percent.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 24 percent last year, as exporters benefited from growth in the U.S. and China -- the destination of almost two-fifths of Japanese exports. The index rose to a 21-month high this week and gained 0.4 percent to 11,399.21 as of 9:24 a.m. in Tokyo. The yen has risen about 7 percent in the past year and traded at 110.11 to the dollar, from 110.04 late yesterday in New York.

Sharp yesterday said it may expand production of liquid crystal displays ``as early as possible'' to meet demand for televisions before the Athens Olympic games in August, Zenpei Tani, the company's LCD business vice president said in an interview.

``The strong yen is obviously one risk to growth, but right now, global economic growth is enough to offset'' the yen's negative effects, Yoshimasa Maruyama, an economist at Mizuho Research Institute Ltd., said before the report's release.

China's economy expanded 9.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, and the U.S. economy, the world's biggest, grew at a 4.1 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter.

Nissan Motor Co. yesterday said it sold 46 percent more vehicles in the U.S. in February, leading Asian carmakers to a bigger share of the world's largest auto market.

The gains in confidence were led by large manufacturers, today's report showed.

The report surveyed 4,745 large companies, with a response rate of 87 percent. Economists say the report is a leading indicator of the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey of business sentiment, which surveys twice as many companies, and will be released on April 1.

Last Updated: March 3, 2004 19:26 EST