Nikkei advances after Greece seals austerity deal

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Nikkei average rebounded from two days of losses on Monday after Greece approved a painful austerity bill in return for a second European bailout, but further gains may be difficult amid protests in Athens and chart resistance at its 200-day moving average.

The Nikkei .N225 gained 0.6 percent to 8,999.18 but fell short of last week's February options settlement price of 9,011.16 and its 200-day moving average near 9,055.

"Investors are picking up financials and taking profit in cyclicals that gained last week, which is a sign that investors are considering the news out of Greece as one step forward," said Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities.

"But markets have been disappointed over and over again by empty political promises and lack of action and the demonstrations in Greece are a source of concern," said Ito.

Protests against the strict austerity reforms raged in Athens, while the departure of six Greek cabinet ministers underscored the difficulty of implementing unpopular steps.

Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities said even if the Nikkei rose above its 200-day moving average it would be a momentary move.

"There's really no domestic factor to attract foreign buying that's more than short-covering and I do have doubts on whether we'll really see 15-20 percent profit increases in the next quarter," he said.

Results in Japan's corporate earnings season have been disappointing so far. Out of 147 Nikkei companies that have reported, 65 percent failed to meet market expectations, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. That compares with 31 percent for S&P 500 .SPX companies.

The broader Topix .TOPX ended up 0.3 percent to 781.68 and rose above its 200-day average at 780.88. Volume was lighter, with 2.05 billion shares changing hands on the main board, down from 2.36 billion shares on Friday.

"We have seen pretty decent flow today. We were skewed to buying," a sales trader at a foreign bank said, adding that domestic investors were selling, which curbed the market.

SOFTBANK, TEPCO

The benchmark Nikkei is up 6.4 percent so far this year, boosted by a brightening outlook for the U.S. economy and an injection of 489 billion euros ($644.9 billion) in three-year loans by the European Central Bank, and some remained upbeat on the market.

"I recommend the exporters, especially the high tech sector, and also the high beta and low price-to-book ratio (stocks). A typical sector would be financial sector," said Shoji Hirakawa, chief strategist at UBS, was upbeat on the market, adding that investors should sell defensive stocks.

He said the market had discounted Japan's economy shrinking a bigger-than-expected 0.6 percent in October-December.

"The key point is not this quarter's growth, last quarter's growth but next fiscal year's growth from April. The Diet passed a supplementary budget in November," he said, referring to planned reconstruction after last March's massive earthquake and tsunami.

Softbank Corp (9984.T) jumped 3.5 percent in heavy volume after the Nikkei business daily said it was the leading candidate out of four mobile operators to receive the high speed frequency 900MHz band.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T) ended up 0.5 percent higher after jumping as much as 7 percent in volatile trade at one point. The Japanese government approved $9 billion in additional support for the utility, although the trade minister warned it would not inject taxpayer money unless it got an adequate say in management.

Among financials, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) added 0.9 percent, Mitsuibishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) put on 0.5 percent, and Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) gained 1.6 percent.

Fanuc Ltd (6954.T), the top weighted winner on the main board, rose 2.2 percent after a report that the industrial robot maker plans to build a new factory near Tokyo to double its domestic output capacity of machine tools that produce smartphone parts by the end of the year.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)