* Property leads gains on Nomura Securities target share hike
* Wall St reaction to 'Jobs shock', Apple's earnings eyed
* Smartphone, touch panel-related firms down on Jobs news
* Steelmakers lower on report of profit drop
By Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average received a
boost from property and banking shares to edge higher on Tuesday,
but investors waited to see Wall Street's reaction to news that
Apple Inc <AAPL.O> CEO Steve Jobs was again taking medical leave.
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Brokers said a rebound in Shanghai shares <> after
Monday's slip on China's latest move to fight inflation was also
lifting investors' confidence.
But the Nikkei's gains were limited as a strong advance in
real estate shares was offset by declines in steelmakers after a
report by the Nikkei business daily that Nippon Steel Corp
<5401.T> would likely fall short of its pretax profit forecast.
"Banks and property shares have gained as foreign investors
have piled in, then we saw some profit-taking and now they're off
again, boosted by domestic retail investors," said Mitsushige
Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.
"Individual investors, who now account for about 30 percent
of the market -- a very high percentage -- are pushing those
stocks higher, showing that sentiment in the market is very
strong."
By midafternoon the benchmark Nikkei <> was up 0.3
percent or 32.17 points at 10,536.65.
The broader Topix index <> rose 0.5 percent to 933.30.
The property sector <.IRLTY.T> was among top gainers, adding
2.1 percent, after Nomura Securities hiked its target prices for
eight property firms on a pickup in the real estate market.
Shares in Mitsui Fudosan Co <8801.T> rose 1.7 percent to
1,759 yen and Tokyu Land Corp <8815.T> gained 1.4 percent to 443
yen, while Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd <8802.T> jumped 3.8 percent
to 1,632 yen.
The property sector has gained around 20 percent since the
Bank of Japan's asset buying scheme was launched in October,
outperforming the Nikkei's 13 percent rise over the same period.
JOBS SHOCK WEIGHS
"The 'Jobs shock' can move not only individual shares or
sectors but whole indexes, so obviously investors will look
closely at how the U.S. market reacts to both earnings and the
news about Jobs," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment
strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Apple's announcement that Jobs would take medical leave for
the third time since 2004 sent Apple's German shares <AAPL.DE>
6.2 percent lower in Frankfurt. It came when U.S. markets were
closed for the Martin Luther King holiday and ahead of the firm's
closely watched earnings report due on Tuesday.
"Investors may take profits on Apple first, but because it's
expected to post strong results Tokyo players want to wait for
the figures and how U.S. investors react," Fujito said.
Foster Electric <6794.T>, which makes headphones for
smartphones, shed 1.3 percent after outperforming the Nikkei's 15
percent rally and surging some 40 percent since the start of
November.
Kimoto Co Ltd <7908.T>, a maker of hard coat film for touch
panels, was 1.8 percent lower at 844 yen, while Murata
Manufacturing <6981.T>, the world's biggest producer of ceramic
capacitors, which are tiny devices used in smartphones, shed 0.2
percent to 6,000 yen.
Analysts said the news could have a huge impact on share
moves because Apple, with its market capitalisation roughly 10
times that of Sony Corp <6758.T>, accounts for some 7 percent of
the Nasdaq Composite's <> market cap.
Apart from the Ipad maker, investors will look for clues that
the U.S. economy is on a sustainable recovery path in results to
be announced later in the week by economic bellwether General
Electric <GE.N> and tech names such as Google <GOOG.O> and eBay
<EBAY.O>.
Steelmakers were among the biggest decliners after a report
by the Nikkei business daily that Nippon Steel will likely post a
pretax profit of about 220 billion yen ($2.66 billion) for the
year ending in March, about 30 billion yen below its forecast.
"This fall reflects higher commodities prices that have been
benefiting trading houses such as Mitsubishi Corp," said
Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley's Fujito.
Nippon Steel fell 1.4 percent to 293 yen and JFE Holdings Inc
<5411.T> lost 1.6 percent to 2,782 yen while Mitsubishi Corp
<8058.T> added 1.3 percent to 2.395 yen.
($1=82.66 Yen)
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Michael Watson)
