Nikkei turns down on economic, political woes; Recruit slides

* Nikkei surrenders modest gains, ends day down 0.09%
* Lingering trade war concerns, Brexit woes cap market
* Recruit slides after announcing share sales, weighs on
Nikkei

By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average edged
lower on Thursday, as an early Wall Street-led bounce gave way
to lingering concerns that trade conflicts and political risks
would hurt the global economy.
The Nikkei .N225 ended the session down 0.09% at
20,460.93, having advanced a modest 0.15% the previous day.
The index rose as much as 0.2% in early trade after all three of
the major U.S. stock indexes posted gains overnight.
But the Nikkei's rise sputtered on underlying concerns about
another flare-up in the U.S.-China trade war and latest
developments in the Brexit saga pointing to fresh turbulence in
the financial markets ahead.
"The market can't get much of a lift as it waits for Sept. 1
to see if extra U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports actually kick
in," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho
Securities.
"U.S. trade adviser (Peter) Navarro's cautious comments on
trade issues also weighed on sentiment," Miura said.
Global markets remain on edge after the latest flurry of
tit-for-tat tariffs between Washington and Beijing, and the lack
of firm details on the next round of trade talks between the two
countries did little to ease nerves.
"I can tell you that it's unlikely anything quick will
happen given the structural basis of the problems," White House
trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview with Fox
Business Network on Wednesday. There were 127 advancers on the Nikkei index against 87
decliners.
The largest percentage decliner was staffing services
company Recruit Holdings Co 6098.T , which retreated 4.8% after
it announced plans to sell approximately 7.16% of its
outstanding shares through a secondary offering. The biggest percentage gainers were Rakuten Inc 4755.T , up
2.4%, followed by Taisei Corp 1801.T for a gain of 2.3% and
Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd 1332.T up by 2.2%.
Suzuki Motor Corp 7203.T rose 1.5%, helped by the carmaker
announcing a capital tie-up with Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T .
Shares of Toyota, which will pay around 96 billion yen
($910.90 million) for a 4.94% stake in Suzuki, closed little
changed on the day.
The broader Topix .TOPX inched down 0.01% to 1,490.17.
The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's
main board was 0.77 billion, compared to the average of 1.11
billion yen in the past 30 days.
($1 = 105.3900 yen)

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)