TOKYO (AFP) -- Japanese share prices rose 0.43 percent Wednesday morning as bargain-hunting emerged after sharp losses Tuesday, with sentiment underpinned by a continued advance in Japan's current account surplus, dealers said.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei-225 index edged up 44.04 points to end the early session at 10,251.08 while the broader TOPIX index of all first-section shares was up 4.29 points or 0.43 percent at 1,011.60.

Japan's finance ministry said Wednesday the country's current account surplus, which measures the flow of goods, services and investment income, and other financial transfers, jumped 37.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.59 trillion yen (14.7 billion dollars) in September due to rising exports to Asia and Europe.

"Investors were relieved by news that strong exports boosted the current account surplus," said Minoru Tada, director at World Ichiei Securities. "This assured investors that the export-led Japanese economy is still on track."

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index hit a 12-week low of 10,207.04 Tuesday on fresh concerns that the yen will appreciate further against the dollar and hurt Japan's export-led economic recovery.

Buying interest was also strong Wednesday after Japan's top telecoms firm NTT reported that its group net profit ballooned more than 11 times to a record high in the first half to September.

Shares in NTT surged 44,000 yen or 9.8 percent to 495,000 in the morning session while Japan's biggest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo rose 11,000 or 4.9 percent to 237,000.

In the banking sector, Resona gained five to 142 and Mitsubishi-Tokyo Financial Group was up 14,000 to 730,000.