Japan Stocks Rise, Led By Exporters,

Japanese stocks climbed in choppy early trade Friday, with tech shares benefitting from a slightly weaker yen, while energy and trading firms slipped on overnight weakness in crude-oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.5% to 9,669.23 after moving in both direction in the early going, while the Topix was up 0.2% at 833.40. With the dollar ticking higher against the Japanese yen, forex-sensitive tech exporters rose, with Hitachi Ltd. up 1.5%, Sony Corp. rising 0.5%, and Toshiba Corp. adding 1.4% after annoucing a deal to buy Swiss power-meter producer Landis+Gyr for $2.3 billion. Deal news also helped drug shares, with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. rising 0.7%after saying it plans to buy another Swiss company, Nycomed, while rival Daiichi Sankyo Co. improved by 1.6%. But weakness in crude oil, sent Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. down 0.5%, and Mitsui & Co. lower by 1.6%.