Nikkei likely to weaken after steep rally; eyes on BOJ

TOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average seen
weakening slightly on Monday after gaining 6 percent since Oct.
12 on growing expectations that the Bank of Japan will take
substantial easing steps when it meets on Tuesday.
A firmer yen will also likely weigh on the market.
Market players said the Nikkei was likely to trade between
8,850 to 9,000 after Nikkei futures in Chicago closed
at 8,965, up 0.4 percent from the close in Osaka.
"It will be difficult to move today -- there are high
expectations for easing but the market is still uncertain," said
Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
Sources have said the BOJ is expected to ease monetary policy
by expanding asset purchases by at least 10 trillion yen and may
commit to injecting cash until 1 percent inflation is
achieved.
"Since they spent 10 trillion yen last month, this time they
really have to do something bigger if they don't want to
disappoint the market," Hirano said.
Honda Motor Co Ltd, Nomura Holdings Inc,
Renesas Electronics Corp are among companies reporting
after the bell on Monday.
Sixty-seven percent of the 21 Nikkei companies that have
reported results so far have undershot analysts' predictions in
Thomson Reuters' StarMine.
But many market participants say that exaggerated pessimism
ahead of the earnings season has meant robust share price gains
for quite a few stocks that did not have results that were worse
than analysts' predictions.
The yen was also firmer on Monday, rising to 79.67 to the
dollar after hitting a four-month low on Friday.
The Nikkei fell 1.4 percent to 8,933.06 on Friday on concern
that Chinese funds face heavy redemptions after poor quarterly
performances, which triggered a sell-off across Asian equity
markets.

> Wall St ends flat on Apple picking, but down for week
> Euro little changed vs dollar after 3 days of losses
> Prices gain on safe-haven support, jobs data eyed
> Gold rebounds after US GDP but set for weekly loss
> Oil up second day, U.S. products rise ahead of storm
STOCKS TO WATCH
- HITACHI LTD
Hitachi is close to signing a deal to buy U.K. nuclear power
generation firm Horizon Nuclear Power from two German power
companies for an estimated 60 billion yen to 70 billion yen
($754-$880 million), according to sources.
-NTT DOCOMO INC
Mobile provider NTT cut its full year operating profit
outlook by 9 percent, which would mark a 6.2 percent decrease on
the year, after its operating profit for the six months ended
September 30 came in 7.4 percent lower than the previous year.

-NEC CORP
Reporting after the bell on Friday, internet provider NEC
Corp said it had made an operating profit of 47.4
billion yen for the first half, despite making a small operating
loss in the first quarter.