Tokyo shares dip but Nintendo soars on Apple tie-up

Tokyo stocks slipped Thursday morning as soft Japanese growth data left investors guessing about the chances of more central bank stimulus, but Nintendo soared on news of a Super Mario game tie-up with Apple.

Shortly before markets opened, Japanese government figures showed that the world's number three economy expanded by a tepid 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter, slightly better than a flat preliminary reading.

But the improved numbers -- owing to an upward revision in capital spending and public investment -- still fell well below first-quarter GDP figures, as a bid to put Japan on a firm recovery track struggles to gain traction.

The weak figures will thrust the spotlight on the Bank of Japan which holds a meeting this month.

At a Tokyo seminar this week, BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda stopped short of signalling policymakers' intentions when they hold the two-day meeting from September 20.

Kuroda, however, left the door open for more stimulus and waved off talk of scaling back on its massive easing policy -- a cornerstone of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faltering Abenomics growth bid.

"It's difficult to make a definitive move in either direction," Koichi Kurose, Tokyo-based chief market strategist at Resona Bank, told Bloomberg News.

"Vitality in the market is being sapped."

At the break, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.24 percent, or 41.39 points, at 16,971.05, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues eased 0.23 percent, or 3.05 points, to 1,346.48.

Automakers were among the decliners, with Toyota shares falling 0.27 percent to 6,167 yen and rival Honda dropping 0.53 percent to 3,152 yen.

Nintendo bucked the trend, soaring 13.22 percent to 27,960 yen after the Japanese game giant and Apple announced that an exclusive Super Mario game will be available on iPhones later this year.

In forex trading, the dollar changed hands at 101.68, little changed from 101.73 yen in New York late Wednesday.