TOKYO, Japan's stock indices hovered near the previous day's closing levels on Tuesday afternoon, with investors taking a breather after positive jobs data prompted a brief round of buying and ahead of key earnings later in the day. Players had tested the market's upside soon after the opening, encouraged by the government's better-than-expected unemployment figures. But gains were pared by selling on blue chips by private pension funds and short-selling by foreign investors in autos and trading houses, analysts said. The Nikkei average was up 0.31 percent at 9,870.25 by 0520 GMT, having risen as high as 9,932.18, its best intraday since July 10. The broader TOPIX index was up 0.23 percent at 961.89. "(Private) pension funds and banks are placing sell orders near highs, putting a brake on the market's momentum," said Koji Muneoka, head of domestic sales trading at HSBC Securities. Investors continued to be lured to issues with upbeat earnings, with Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd , Japan's largest maker of electric wire and cables which returned to the black in the latest quarter, rising 4.3 percent to 946 yen. But chip and computer giant Fujitsu Ltd slumped 3.17 percent to 550 yen after the company announced weak quarterly earnings and lowered its half-year earnings forecast. In the auto sector, Honda Motor Co was down 1.88 percent at 4,700 yen ahead of its quarterly earnings. The fall in shares of Japan's second-biggest automaker also came on the heels of Honda's lagging sales data for June compared with its Japanese rivals, all released on Monday. Global output at Honda grew a meagre 0.2 percent in June from a year earlier, compared with a 14.5 percent rise for bigger rival Toyota Motor Corp and 11.3 percent growth for third-ranked Nissan Motor Co. "Yesterday's data showed that Honda is changing its tune (from past healthy figures)," said Atsushi Tajima, chief manager at Mitsubishi Securities' equities department. "But that does not necessarily mean that the industry as a whole will likely trace the same trend." Toyota was down 0.96 percent at 3,080 yen and Nissan was down 1.34 percent at 1,182. Traders said several investors were pulling back before they see key earnings reports. Apart from Honda and Fujitsu, big tech firms Sharp Corp <6753.T> and Kyocera Corp <6971.T> were reporting quarterly earnings later in the day. While many investors expected most tech firms to report solid results this week, any share price gains could be limited because many tech bellwethers have already risen sharply in recent weeks. "There is more room for a boost for automakers from a positive surprise, since their valuations also look more attractive than many of the tech firms," said Akio Yoshino, general manager at SG Yamaichi Asset Management. Honda was trading at a price valuing it at 10 times its forecast for group earnings per share in the year to March 2004, compared with a price-earnings (PE) ratio of 27 for Kyocera and 39 for Sharp. Kyocera, the world's largest maker of ceramic packages for semiconductors, was up 0.14 percent at 7,380 yen. Sharp, Japan's top maker of liquid crystal displays, was up 1.97 percent at 1,764 yen. Terminal users can see other related news and rates by double-clicking on : All Nikkei indices <0#.NIKKEI> All shares listed on Nikkei-225 <0#.N225> N225 index <.N225> N300 index <.N300> Top 20 by volume <.AV.T> Top 20 by value <.AM.T> Total volume <.TV.T> Total value <.VM.T> All TSE simple avg <.TSEA> All TSE weighted avg <.TSEB> Top 20 gainers by pct <.PG.T> Top 20 losers by pct <.PL.T> Top 20 net gainers <.NG.T> Top 20 net losers <.NL.T> Osaka N225 data <0#JNI:> TOPIX futures data <0#JTI:> TOPIX index <.TOPX> TOPIX sector data <.TSEK> RELATED NEWS AND OTHER TOPICS : Active Japanese stocks [JP-HOT] Weekly Tokyo preview [.T/O] Japan IPO news [JP/IPO] All Equity news [E] Japan economic indicators[ECI/JP] Japan Diary [JP/DIARY] Tuesday, 29 July 2003 05:52:08 RTRS [nT282370]