Core private-sector machinery orders jumped a seasonally adjusted 14.2 percent in March, indicating the weaker yen and higher stocks are starting to prompt companies to boost investment, the government said Friday.

The orders, which exclude those for ships and from utilities because of their volatility, climbed for the second-straight month to ¥793.1 billion, the Cabinet Office said, rising much faster than market expectations.

It was the sharpest month-on-month growth in orders, regarded as a leading indicator of capital spending, since officials started compiling comparable data in April 2005.