Tokyo stocks close higher tuesday

Tokyo stocks continued to rise for the fourth straight trading day Tuesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average rising 59.62 points, or 0.69%, to end the day at 8,695.06. Trading lacked direction early in the day, but investors started buying back blue chips, which had been dumped, midway through the morning session, according to (Nikkei) website. Stocks continued to gain ground in the afternoon, as investors intermittently bought stock index futures. Short-term players, including overseas hedge funds, also started buying back shares of consumer electronics makers and other firms with weak earnings to close out their positions at the end of the month. Window dressing also pushed up stock prices. The trading value on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange reached 1.04 trillion yen on a preliminary basis, surpassing the psychologically significant 1 trillion yen mark.