Japan stocks rise as Honda, Sony jump on earnings

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By Taiga Uranaka

TOKYO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks rose on Friday, with Honda Motor Co (7267.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) jumping after posting strong earnings.

Still, sharp gains by these blue chip stocks were slow to translate into a big advance in the overall market as investors remained cautious ahead of more earnings to come, with the Nikkei average .N225 edging up 0.6 percent.

"Investors remain unconvinced. They cannot be optimistic yet as there are many more companies to announce results later," said Madoka Takahashi at the investment information centre at Monex Inc, a broker.

"They are cautious also because some shares drop even after companies report good results."

She added trade tends to be slow on Friday as investors hold off big bets ahead of the weekend.

The benchmark Nikkei ended the morning session up 0.6 percent or 99.71 points at 16,383.88. The broader TOPIX index was up 0.7 percent at 1,558.94.

Trade was light, with 686 million shares changing hands, compared with the last week's daily morning average of 844 million shares.