Japanese shares inched up in cautious trading on Friday as Sino-US trade tensions and upcoming trade talks between Washington and Tokyo kept investors on guard.
Bucking the cautious mood, however, was Suzuki Motor , which rose as much as 12.9 per cent to record highs after the automaker posted record profits for second quarter, beating analysts’ estimates.
Nikkei share average was up 0.21 per cent at 22,559.25 while the Topix fell 0.22 per cent to 1,748.16. On the week, the both indexes are on course to post their first weekly losses in four weeks.
Threats from the Trump administration to raise the planned tariffs in $200 billion imports from China to 25 per cent from earlier proposal of 10 per cent have dampened the market mood.
Investors are also getting nervous as Japan is due to start bilateral talks with the United States next week, reports Reuters.
Concerns about trade wars offset a lift from generally positive Japanese corporate earnings on the back of the current strength of the global economy.
Later in the day, Toyota Motor will announce its earnings.
On the other hand, Kubota, which manufactures tractors and heavy equipments, fell as much as 10.2 per cent after it cut its annual net profit guidance by 4.0 per cent on rising raw material costs.
Large caps shares continued their outperformance against their smaller peers since last month.
The Topix core 30 rose 0.2 per cent while Topix Small fell 0.71 per cent.