* Relief after U.S. markets receive Chrysler news calmly
* Yen hits near 2-week low vs dollar, buoys exporters
* Japan back in deflation, jobless rate at four-year high
* Canon higher, Fujitsu jumps after earnings
By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, May 1 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average inched up 0.3
percent on Friday, buoyed as the yen weakened to a near two-week
low against the dollar, but giving back much of its earlier gains
as players closed positions before public holidays next week.
Canon Inc <7751.T>, the world's largest digital camera maker,
climbed almost 4 percent after it raised its annual outlook,
while Fujitsu <6702.T>, Japan's biggest computer server vendor,
jumped 16 percent after beating analysts estimates with its
annual outlook.
Market watchers said players were calm about Chrysler filing
for bankruptcy. []
"The U.S. markets reacted calmly to Chrysler filing for
chapter 11. In addition, with the weaker yen lifting exporters,
the market was offered some respite," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, an
equity strategist at Shinko Securities.
Investors also took gloomy domestic economic data in their
stride.
Japanese core annual prices fell 0.1 percent in March, the
first fall in around a year and a half, sending the country into
its second round of deflation in less than two years, while the
jobless rate rose to a four-year high of 4.8 percent.
[]
"The market had priced in a weakening of these indicators. It
is now continuing to focus and draw support from yesterday's
better-than-expected industrial production numbers," said Segawa
at Shinko Securities.
Japanese industrial production numbers showed output in March
rose 1.6 percent, twice as fast as forecast, and the first gain
in six months. []
The benchmark Nikkei <> climbed 23.58 points to 8,851.84
after gaining as much as 1.3 percent. It ended up 3.9 percent on
Thursday.
The Nikkei climbed 8.9 percent in April, its biggest monthly
gain in a year, helped by receding fears about the financial
system and the global economy.
The broader Topix <> gained 0.2 percent to 839.44.
"Trading is thin with the weak yen about the only short-term
factor to focus on. Though the yen is supportive, there are
players who want to close out long positions before the holidays,
and the Nikkei could even turn negative later in the day," said
Tomomi Yamashita, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co.
Tokyo financial markets will be closed between May 4-6 for a
string of national holidays.
Canon gained 3.7 percent to 3,060 yen.
Fujitsu, also Japan's No. 2 PC maker, jumped 16 percent to
487 yen, after it forecast a profit of 80 billion yen for the
year to March 2010, far better than a consensus estimate of a
23.8 billion yen profit by 14 analysts. []
Softbank <9984.T> rose 4.4 percent to 1,618 yen after Japan's
third-biggest mobile phone operator said it would halve its net
interest-bearing debt by March 2012 and reduce it to zero by
March 2015. []
Trade was light on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with
1.08 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week's
morning average of 1.16 billion.
Advancing stocks and declining ones were almost evenly
matched at 788 to 751.
The dollar advanced 0.3 percent to 98.91 yen <JPY=> after
climbing above 99 yen to hit a near two-week high. []
(Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Joseph Radford)
