Nikkei average slips

Japan's Nikkei average pulled back from a three-month high on Thursday as disappointing results from robot-maker Fanuc weighed on the index, while Tokyo Electric surged after sources said the troubled utility would agree to a $13 billion bailout. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) surged 5.5 percent in heavy trade after sources said Japan's government will take a two-thirds stake in the company, in one of the world's largest bailouts outside the banking sector.
Tepco is struggling to pay compensation and clean-up costs after last year's tsunami and earthquake crippled its Fukushima nuclear plant and triggered the worst atomic crisis in 25 years.
---- Tepco surges; sources say utility set for $13bn bailout The benchmark Nikkei slipped 0.4 percent to 8,849.47, after rising 1.1 percent to its highest closing level in three months on Wednesday and gaining for the sixth out of the past seven sessions.
"The focus will be on whether the Nikkei can test its 200-day moving average and the October high of 9,152. I do think gains will continue into February but not at this kind of fever pitch," Hideyuki Ishiguro, assistant manager of investment strategy at Okasan Securities. Industrial robot maker Fanuc weighed on the benchmark and topped the Nikkei as the heaviest weighted decliner, down 2 percent after its results disappointed some investors.
Komtasu, another firm with high exposure to China, shed 3.3 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said the firm's operating profit for the nine months ended December likely totalled 190 billion yen ($2.4 billion), up about 18 percent on the year, compared with the 28 percent gain logged for the six months through September. Although it is still early in Japan's earnings season, out of the nine Nikkei companies that have reported quarterly figures so far, two-thirds came in below market expectations, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed.
That compares with 39 percent of S&P 500 companies that missed forecasts. Weak fourth-quarter earnings from US firm Corning Inc also hurt fellow glass makers Nippon Electric Glass Co Ltd and Asahi Glass Co Ltd, which lost 6.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively. The broader Topix index eased 0.4 percent to 764.61 in moderate volume, with 1.96 billion shares changing hands on the main board, down from 2.2 billion shares on Wednesday.
The benchmark Nikkei is up 4.7 percent this month, and if the index were to finish with the current gains, it would be the best January performance since 1999. Nomura wrote in a report that the Nikkei's 25-day moving average was likely to break above its 75-day average next week to form a "Golden Cross", a bullish sign for stocks. But some market participants were cautious, saying heavy resistance loomed above 9,000 yen.
The earnings outlook for the construction sector improved, with its earnings momentum - analysts' upgrades minus downgrades as a total percentage - rising to 0.6 percent from minus 2 percent a month ago, data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S showed. That compared with still-negative earnings momentum for Topix this month.