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Japan Hot Stocks-Nippon Steel, Asahi Glass

TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The following stocks are on the move on Friday. **NIPPON STEEL , OTHER STEELMAKERS UP ON U.S. MOVES

Top Japanese steelmakers including industry leader Nippon Steel Corp were up after news on Thursday that the United States had excluded another 178 foreign steel products from the disputed tariffs it imposed in March.

Nippon Steel up 4.79 percent at 175 yen in heavy trading, while Kawasaki Steel Corp up 1.37 percent at 148 yen. 0056 GMT **ASAHI GLASS UP AFTER RAISED OUTPUT REPORT**

Asahi Glass Co up 4.43 percent at 731 yen, snapped up on a newspaper report the firm will in September double output of optical filters in Japan and raise production of LCD-use glass substrate by nearly 70 percent in Japan and Taiwan next year.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said Japanese chemical makers are expanding output of parts for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), in part to meet growing demand in China. 0050 GMT **ROCK FIELD UP AFTER SHINKO STARTS COVERAGE WITH "1" RATING**

Rock Field Co Ltd up 4.86 percent at 2,050 yen after Shinko Securities started coverage on the maker of delicatessen foods with a "1" rating, expecting it to outperform the TOPIX index by more than 10 percentage points over the next six months. 0038 GMT **YAMANOUCHI DIVES AFTER GIVING UP ON PROMISING DRUG**

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Japan's third-largest drugmaker, down 6.19 percent at 2,880, becoming the fourth-biggest loser by percentage on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange despite a broad market advance.

Yamanouchi said on Thursday that it had given up on its planned introduction of a new osteoporosis drug, called YM175, after failing to prove the drug's effectiveness.

A Yamanouchi spokesman said it had been expecting about one billion yen ($8.35 million) in sales from the new drug in the current business year to March, and three billion yen in the following year. 0034 GMT

**SUMITOMO RUBBER UP ON HIGHER FORECAST**

Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd, Japan's third-largest tyremaker, up 2.8 percent at 551 yen after the company raised its group earnings forecasts for 2002 on the back of strong exports to the U.S. and cost-cutting.

Sumitomo Rubber raised its group net profit forecast by two billion yen to 8.0 billion yen for the full year to December 2002, and said it expected to post a net profit of 3.10 billion yen in the first half, compared to a previous loss estimate. 0020 GMT **SONY , EXPORTERS FIRM WITH U.S. PEERS, SOFTER YEN**

Sony Corp, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, up 1.64 percent at 5,580 yen, underlining a modest advance for Japan's major exporters on the back of a Wall Street climb and a fall in the yen to a two-week low on the dollar offshore.

Honda Motor Co Ltd , Japan's second-largest automaker, up 1.38 percent at 5,160 yen. Honda gets the bulk of its operating profits from the U.S. market, and a weaker yen boosts those profits when they are converted back into yen. 0015 GMT