Pokemon iPad App

Nintendo Co.’s shares rose 4% Monday after it unveiled a Pokemon trading-card game for Apple Inc.’s iPad, a move some investors interpreted as a break with the company’s longstanding hesitation about putting its games on other companies’ devices.

Nintendo shares rose as high as ¥12,125, the highest level since July 30, during Monday trading in Tokyo.

The new iPad app is similar to a version of the Pokemon Trading Card Game that is already available on Windows and Mac computers. It was introduced at the Pokemon World Championship, a tournament held over the weekend in Washington, D.C., said a spokeswoman for the Pokemon Co., an affiliate of Nintendo.

“Investors took the reports as a sign of a change in Nintendo’s stance of avoiding developing full games for smartphones and tablets,” said Yusuke Sakai, a senior trader at T&D Asset Management.

A Nintendo representative in Japan confirmed the new app on Monday but declined to discuss its implications for Nintendo’s business strategy. The Pokemon spokeswoman said the app’s release date hasn’t been decided. She said the company wasn’t preparing a version for the iPhone or for Android smartphones.

Nintendo has kept a cautious stance toward smartphones, although game players are spending more time on mobile devices these days.