Japan shares close mixed

TOKYO: Japanese shares closed mixed on Tuesday, with softer oil prices encouraging bargain-hunting after Monday's losses but fears of further Middle East and North Africa unrest firmly in focus, dealers said. The Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed 20.17 points higher to 10,525.19. But the Topix index of all first section shares lost 0.26 percent, or 2.47 points, to 939.16. "Investors still do not clearly know which direction to take," said Monex market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama, adding that players are concerned about the possibility of large protests in Saudi Arabia later this week. Crude prices slipped in Asia as the United States refused to rule out tapping its oil reserves to ease the impact of high oil prices, analysts said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, fell 41 cents to $105.03 per barrel. Brent North Sea crude for April delivery shed 13 cents to $114.91. Analysts said crude oil prices were the key factor to spark a market turnaround, amid concern that the Libyan unrest would spread to other oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Once oil prices stop rising, the uncertainty on global economic conditions and corporate earnings will subside," Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at Nikko Cordial Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires. Takashi Ushio, general manager at Marusan Securities, said: "As enthusiasm grows for corporate restructuring at home, factors are in place for the market to go upward once near-term uncertainties can be removed."

Dealers said the market's focus was on whether protests planned for later this week in Saudi Arabia would materialise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.66 percent on Monday. The euro firmed to $1.3979 in Asian trade from 1.3971 in New York late Monday, while it rose to 115.11 yen from 114.90 yen. The dollar stood at 82.37 yen, up from 82.25 yen. Kyocera was up 1.19 percent at 8,480 yen on a Barclays Capital upgrade. Merger and restructuring activities involving Japanese firms gave the Nikkei index a lift, dealers said. Medical equipment maker Terumo rose 3.22 percent to 4,640 on its $2.63 billion acquisition of major US blood transfusion technology firm CaridianBCT. Hitachi rose 1.78 percent to 514 after Western Digital agreed to acquire its hard disk drive business for about $4.3 billion in cash and stock. However Sony was off 0.61 percent at 2,908 yen and Sharp fell 1.32 percent to 821.