Nikkei rises

Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.4 percent on Monday as investors snapped up shares of firms with robust earnings, while a pull-back in the yen after last week's rise also helped the market to shrug off dull US economic data. Honda Motor Co climbed 4 percent after posting its best quarterly operating profit in 2-1/2 years after the market's close on Friday, while raising its forecasts despite a strong yen.
Although the yen's slight retracement sparked short-covering in Japanese stocks early on Monday, currency moves remained a concern and kept market gains in check after the yen surged to an eight-month high of 86 to the dollar on Friday.
In the latest in a string of weak US data, US gross domestic product expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than the 2.5 percent pace analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
But a jump in the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index to 62.3 in July took the edge off the GDP figures, market players said. Analysts had expected a reading of 56.5. The benchmark Nikkei rose 33.01 points to 9,570.31, while the broader Topix inched up 0.1 percent to 850.69. Market players warned that the Nikkei faces stiff resistance around 9,800 points, a mid-July peak it has several times tried and failed to break.
Support for the Nikkei was solid, however, at its 25-day moving average, now near 9,470 points, market players said, but they added that trade was likely to remain rangebound ahead of a string of US economic indicators due out later this week, including jobs data on Friday.
Nearly 45 percent of major Japanese companies listed on the Tokyo exchange's first section, excluding financials, have reported first-quarter earnings so far, and they are likely to book a 43.2 percent rise in recurring profit for the year to March, according to data compiled by Mizuho Securities Research & Consulting.
But Nomura also said its net profit fell to its lowest in six quarters. All Nippon Airways Co rose 2.4 percent to 300 yen after the Nikkei business daily said the airline plans to seek investments from overseas airlines and investment funds to help set up a low-cost carrier that could be launched as early as next year.
Elpida Memory lost 7.8 percent to 1,199 yen after Goldman Sachs downgraded it to "neutral" from "buy" and removed it from its "Japan Buy" list. Trade was moderate on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 1.7 billion shares changing hands. Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones, 854 to 642.