REFILE-Japanese shares edge up amid market calm, but sentiment stays weak

(Corrects to remove extraneous character in 8th paragraph)
TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Japanese shares eked out small
gains on Thursday on bargain-hunting after the past week's heavy
selling, but investor sentiment remained frail due to the
uncertain outlook for reducing conflicts between the United
States and China.
At midday, the Nikkei share average .N225 was up 0.59% to
20,636.72 after four straight days of losses. The broader Topix
.TOPX gained 0.15% to 1,502.11.
Growth shares extended their outperformance since mid-July,
with Topix Growth index .TOPXG rising 0.3% while value shares
.TOPXV dipped 0.1%.
The market was relieved as the Chinese yuan CNY=CFXS was
largely stabilising after heavy falls early this week and as
there was no fresh escalation in Sino-U.S. tensions over the
last 24 hours.
"The market calmed down a bit as there was no particular bad
news," said Soichiro Monji, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui
DS Asset Management.
Yet worries that the their confrontation could tip the
global economy into a severe downturn or even a recession kept
many investors on the sidelines.
Trading mostly focused on companies that just published
earnings.
SoftBank Group 9984.T fell 2.0%. The firm raked in a
record quarterly net profit for a Japanese firm, but the total
was boosted by gains from sales of a part of its stake in
Alibaba BABA.K .
SoftBank's results have been increasingly volatile as Chief
Executive Masayoshi Son shifts focus from the predictable income
of telecoms in favour of bets on startups with shifting
valuations. Justsystems 4686.T hit limit-high, rising 19.6% after the
software developer reported strong profit growth in April-June.
Shares of some other technology firms reporting bumper
earnings also jumped, with Lasertec 6920.T rising 9.8% and
Optorun 6235.T 11.8%.
Sumitomo Osaka Cement 5232.T rose 7.6% after its earnings
beat market expectations.
But not all the earnings reports were rosy.
Heavy equipment maker IHI 7013.T tumbled 9.8% after
posting weak quarterly results. Resource conglomerate JXTG
5020.T , hurt by weak oil prices, fell 6.0%.

(Editing by Richard Borsuk)