Japan stocks rebound from post-quake sell-off

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average and the broader Topix index rebounded on Wednesday after two days of heavy losses spurred by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan and the nuclear safety crisis that followed.

Following are analysts' comments on the stock market's bounce.

"Still, many foreign investors were detected buying back today. The market in general understands that Japanese shares are oversold, but uncertainty over the Fukushima nuclear power plant is clearly making market participants very nervous."

"The market is still extremely volatile. We can still see big swings of hundreds of yen over a very short period of time.

"But it's mostly short covering by both domestic and foreign players, and not honest, active buying, because nuclear worries are still strong.

"If we hear anything about the nuclear situation improving, investors will aggressively pile into the Nikkei. There may be one more selloff after that, and then prices will stabilise."

"We are expected to see more recoveries, but the topside will be limited as there are plenty of sell orders from online-based retail investors on price gains."

"They are competitive in the true meaning of the word. That's why our stance is to invest in such firms, despite what has happened.

"Short-term investors find it very difficult to buy now, so this is our role, as long-term players, to buy.

"We want to buy, but we need to have more information about the level of damage at different companies, so we will be gathering this information and invest very carefully."