Japan's Nikkei up nearly 6 percent, exporters rise

Nikkei rose 5.9 percent on Tuesday, boosted as exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp jumped, with electronics maker Panasonic climbing after reports said it was planning to take over Sanyo Electric.

Shares of huge Japanese banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group moved forward after Credit Suisse raised its position on the sector to "overweight" and said all bad earnings news is likely out after a series of profit warnings last week.

But trade was slightly low as many investors were reluctant to buy ahead of the U.S. presidential election. This trend also reduced trading activity in New York on Monday, when Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

"While people are holding back a bit ahead of the election, their big concern is less who wins than whether the result will be decided quickly or not," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities.

"The worst thing would be an extended political vacuum."

Shares go up and down these past days

The election won by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2000 was not finally decided until well into December.

A wave of short-covering after the Nikkei slid more than 5 percent on Friday to cap the worst month in its 58-year history boosted shares across the board.

The benchmark Nikkei was up 5.9 percent, a gain of 505.97 points, at 9,082.95 at 0511 GMT. The broader Topix was up 5.1 percent at 911.55.

Toyota climbed 5.4 percent to 3,920 yen and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 6.5 percent to 636 yen. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group gained 7.6 percent to 412,000 yen.