June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 155.25, or 1.6 percent, to 9,677.75 as of the close in Tokyo. The following were among the most active shares in the Japanese market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Shipping lines: The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, rose 5.9 percent to 3,494, the highest since Sept. 29. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (9107 JT) jumped 7.4 percent to 463 yen, its highest since Oct. 15. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (9104 JT) advanced 6.4 percent to 719 yen, its highest since Oct. 6. Nippon Yusen K.K. (9101 JT) rose 5 percent to 479 yen. Meiji Shipping Co. (9115 JT) surged 19 percent to 512 yen, the highest since Sept. 26.

Dowa Holdings Co. (5714 JT) climbed 8.5 percent to 460 yen, the highest since Oct. 1. Cosmo Securities Co. analyst Akira Iwasaki rated the metal producer “neutral plus” in new coverage dated May 29.

Hitachi Cable Ltd. (5812 JT) advanced 3.2 percent to 320 yen, the highest since Oct. 1. The cable and electronic equipment maker was raised to “neutral” from “reduce” at Nomura Holdings Inc.

Hitachi Ltd. (6501 JT) added 2.5 percent to 323 yen. The electronic equipment maker Hitachi Displays Ltd. (HTDSPZ JP) unit will start manufacturing high-definition liquid-crystal display panels for mobile phones in 2010, the Nikkei newspaper reported. The panels will have the highest resolution for a mobile phone, the report said.

ITX Corp. (2725 JX) soared by its daily limit of 13 percent to 35,600 yen, its sharpest advance since Sept. 14, 2006. Sony Corp. (6758 JT) and Panasonic Corp. (6752 JT) will move their mobile phone handset sales operations to the company, which imports and exports network equipment and software. ITX, 82.1 percent held by Olympus Corp. (7733 JT), said in a statement it will pay Sony 5.6 billion yen ($58.9 million). Panasonic, will receive 900 million yen for the transfer. Sony gained 3.4 percent to 2,580 yen. Panasonic added 0.8 percent to 1,379 yen. Olympus rose 1 percent to 1,885 yen.

Joint Corp. (8874 JT) plunged by its daily limit of 38 percent to 133 yen, falling the most since at least November 1999. The real estate developer filed for bankruptcy protection with liabilities of 168 billion yen, making it the country’s third-largest failure of a publicly traded company this year. Revenue from property securitization plunged and sufficient new funding couldn’t be obtained, the company said in a release. Joint Reit Investment Corp. (8973 JT), partially owned by Joint Corp., plummeted by its daily limit of 17 percent to 150,500 yen, its biggest drop since Oct. 24.

Kokusai Co. (7722 JQ) jumped 8 percent to 675 yen, the highest since Oct. 6. The maker of tire-balancing machines said it will repurchase as much as 2.82 percent, or 400,000, of its outstanding shares for up to 200 million yen through June 30.

Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (4902 JT) surged 9.8 percent to 1,088 yen, the highest since Oct. 1. The printer maker was lifted to “buy” from “neutral” by Toshiya Hari, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Marubun Corp. (7537 JT) climbed by its upper daily limit of 21 percent to 469 yen, the highest since Oct. 20. The distributor of semiconductors and electronic components will start selling laser-patterning equipment for high-speed manufacture of thin-film solar cells, it said on its Web site.

Maruichi Steel Tube Ltd. (5463 JT) increased 4.7 percent to 1,894 yen. The maker of steel pipes plans to spend as much as 1.2 billion yen to buy back up to 0.5 percent, or 500,000, of its outstanding shares through June 12.

Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. (5706 JT) rallied 10 percent to 247 yen, the highest since Sept. 29. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (5713 JT) climbed 6.8 percent to 1,439 yen. The companies plan to combine some of their copper operations to form a joint venture by April 1, 2010, to cut operating costs. They will cut some of their sales units and jointly purchase raw materials, resulting in savings of 1 billion yen per year.

Naikai Zosen Corp. (7018 JT) jumped 10 percent to 373 yen, the highest since Aug. 20. The shipbuilder said it plans to buy back as much as 24.65 percent of its outstanding shares for up to 2.24 billion yen from Aug. 21 through Nov. 30.

Nintendo Co. (7974 JT) added 3.7 percent to 26,580 yen. The Japanese game maker plans to release an updated version of its “Wii Fit” software, Nikkei reported.

Nisshin Steel Co. (5407 JT) climbed 15 percent to 247 yen, rising the most since Oct. 14. The steelmaker was rated “buy” in new coverage at Nomura Holdings Inc., which put a 12-month price target of 310 yen on the stock.

Pixela Corp. (6731 JT) soared 26 percent to 231 yen, the highest since Sept. 25. The maker of graphics software for image editing will start shipping card-size receivers for digital terrestrial broadcasting this summer, it said in a release.

Sanden Corp. (6444 JT), an air-conditioner maker, surged 30 percent to 260 yen, its biggest gain since at least September 1974. Arifumi Yoshida, an analyst at Nikko Citigroup Ltd., lifted the company’s shares to “hold” from “sell” and increased the stock’s target price by 75 percent, from 120 yen to 210 yen.

Sumco Corp. (3436 JT) declined 5.4 percent to 1,390 yen. The maker of silicon wafers widened its net loss forecast for the first-half period to 50 billion yen from 37 billion yen. Sumco said slumping demand for silicon wafers as well as depreciation charges damaged its profit.

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. (8403 JT) gained 3.8 percent to 467 yen. The lender will receive a 20 billion yen subordinated loan under a framework established by the Bank of Japan, Nikkei English News reported, without saying how it obtained the information. The Bank of Japan in March disclosed plans to auction subordinated loans to banks with international operations as part of a plan to boost their capital, Nikkei said.

TDK Corp. (6762 JT) rallied 4.2 percent to 4,440 yen. Barclays Capital analyst Masaru Koshita raised his rating on the world’s largest maker of magnetic heads used in disk drives to “equalweight” from “underweight.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Akiko Ikeda in Tokyo at iakiko@bloomberg.net; Norie Kuboyama in Tokyo at nkuboyama@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 1, 2009 03:45 EDT