Nikkei flat, Yokogawa Electric and Bridgestone up
TOKYO, June 20 (Reuters) Japan's Nikkei average was nearly flat on Wednesday as Yokogawa Electric Corp. jumped on a report about winning a big order but investors sold Canon Inc. and other recent gainers.
Bridgestone Corp rose 2.4 percent to 2,610 yen after Goldman Sachs added the stock to its Conviction Buy List, citing declines in natural rubber prices and strong growth in European and American sales.
Investors appeared reluctant to push prices higher without confirmation on corporate profit growth, and the market may remain in a tight range until quarterly earnings results come out next month, said Tamiji Shinada, executive director, investment research and investor services department at Nomura Securities Co Ltd.
''Japanese as well as overseas markets are becoming directionless, that's because interest rates have risen in the past month, but we have not yet seen corporate profit expansion that matches the rate rises,'' he said.
The Nikkei share average was down 0.44 points at 18,163.17 as of 0052 GMT, while the broader TOPIX index was up 0.10 percent to 1,782.21.
Shares of Yokogawa Electric surged 4.8 percent to 1,732 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported an order it won from oil major Chevron was worth more than 100 billion yen.
Canon, a maker of digital camera and copiers, slipped 0.3 percent to 7,350 yen. The stock hit an all time high of 7,390 yen on a share-split basis on Monday.
Other recent gainers such as Honda Motor Co lost 0.7 percent to 4,410 yen, snapping its five-day winning streak.
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