* Nikkei turns positive after starting day down 1 pct
* But remains poised for third straight negative week
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average turned
positive on Friday, boosted by short-covering after hopes
emerged for possible measures from Japanese authorities to stem
the yen's rise, though caution remained on whether these would
be effective.
But investors remained nervous ahead of U.S. gross domestic
product data due out later in the day and said that whether the
market closed above 8,800 or not was likely to be one key to
future moves.
Kyodo news agency reported that Japanese Prime Minister
Naoto Kan will hold a news conference on Friday on the
government's steps to cope with a recent surge in the yen.
[]
Separately, Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda
reiterated that the government will take appropriate action on
currencies when necessary. []
"I think these reports are just being used by people as a
reason to buy, since if they really had some concrete policy in
mind they would probably announce it much sooner," said
Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.
"The most important things for the market's direction next
week are the U.S. GDP figures and especially how U.S. stocks
respond. Even bad data might not be a problem since it could
well already be factored in -- what's important is what stocks
do."
The dollar rose slightly against the yen, edging up 0.3
percent to 84.70 <JPY=>,
In thin trade, the benchmark Nikkei <> climbed 0.5
percent or 48.35 points to 8,954.55, climbing further away from
a 16-month low hit on Wednesday. But it was poised to end the
week down for its third straight negative week, the worst such
run since April.
The broader Topix <> gained 0.6 percent to 816.22.
Market players have said that the longer the Nikkei stays
below 9,000, which has been a key support level several times in
the past year, the greater the chance that strong resistance
will develop at that point.
"It had appeared that risk avoidance might be starting to
abate slightly, but with poor figures expected for U.S. GDP data
later today there's a lot of wariness in the market," said
Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist for Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan
Stanley Securities.
"In addition, U.S. indicators recently haven't been very
good, especially housing-related ones, so there'll be a lot of
market attention on what (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke
says for hints as to what sort of policy steps the Fed might
take, and that could affect the dollar/yen rate."
Bernanke will speak later on Friday at the annual Federal
Reserve conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
A number of exporters turned positive after starting the day
in negative territory.
Honda Motor Co <7267.T> rose 1.6 percent to 2,811 yen, TDK
Corp <6762.T> rose 2.3 percent to 4,395 yen, and chip tester
maker Advantest Corp <6857.T> gained 1.3 percent to 1,644 yen.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Joseph Radford)
