Japan's core private-sector machinery orders, a gauge of trends in capital spending, rose 1.9 percent in March from a month earlier, beating market expectations for a decline of 1.0 percent. Year-on-year, the core orders, which exclude those for ships and equipment at electric power firms, rose 13.2 percent. The forecasts in a Reuters poll of 18 economists had centered on a rise of 9.7 percent rise from a year earlier. PETER MORGAN, SENIOR ECONOMIST, HSBC Securities: "The overall outlook is still rather weak. Orders for the quarter are up just 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, and the forecast is for a decline in the second quarter so you certainly can't tease much good news out of that. "Everybody knows the figures are volatile, so you tend to look at the trend, rather than just the one number and the trend has flattened out again. "While the forecasts are not particularly reliable...(it) certainly isn't suggesting any good news out there." - Ten-year Japanese government bond futures fell to the day's low of 140.33 shortly after the announcement from 140.45 ahead of the data. - The Nikkei share average rose about 40 points after the data release, moving into the positive territory. As of 0503 GMT, the Nikkei was up 0.23 percent at 11,103.08. - The yen edged up to 106.76 to the dollar from about 106.85.