The Nikkei average rebounded from two days of losses today after Greece approved a painful austerity bill in return for a second European bailout, but further gains may be difficult amid protests in Athens and chart resistance at its 200-day moving average.

The Nikkei gained 0.6 per cent to 8,999.18 but fell short of last week's February options settlement price of 9,011.16 and its 200-day moving average near 9,055.

"Investors are picking up financials and taking profit in cyclicals that gained last week, which is a sign that investors are considering the news out of Greece as one step forward," said Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities.

"But markets have been disappointed over and over again by empty political promises and lack of action and the demonstrations in Greece are a source of concern.”

Protests against the strict austerity reforms raged in Athens, while the departure of six Greek cabinet ministers underscored the difficulty of implementing unpopular steps.

Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities said even if the Nikkei rose above its 200-day moving average it would be a momentary move.

"There's really no domestic factor to attract foreign buying that's more than short-covering and I do have doubts on whether we'll really see 15-20 per cent profit increases in the next quarter," he said.

Results in Japan's corporate earnings season have been disappointing so far. Out of 147 Nikkei companies that have reported, 65 per cent failed to meet market expectations, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. That compares with 31 per cent for S&P 500 companies.

The broader Topix ended up 0.3 per cent to 781.68 and rose above its 200-day average at 780.88. Volume was lighter, with 2.05 billion shares changing hands on the main board, down from 2.36 billion shares on Friday.

"We have seen pretty decent flow today. We were skewed to buying," a sales trader at a foreign bank said, adding that domestic investors were selling, which curbed the market.

The benchmark Nikkei is up 6.4 per cent so far this year, boosted by a brightening outlook for the US economy and an injection of €489 billion in three-year loans by the European Central Bank, and some remained upbeat on the market.

"I recommend the exporters, especially the high tech sector, and also the high beta and low price-to-book ratio (stocks). A typical sector would be financial sector," said Shoji Hirakawa, chief strategist at UBS, was upbeat on the market, adding that investors should sell defensive stocks.

He said the market had discounted Japan's economy shrinking a bigger-than-expected 0.6 per cent in October-December.

"The key point is not this quarter's growth, last quarter's growth but next fiscal year's growth from April. The Diet passed a supplementary budget in November," he said, referring to planned reconstruction after last March's massive earthquake and tsunami.

Softbank Corp jumped 3.5 per cent in heavy volume after the Nikkei business daily said it was the leading candidate out of four mobile operators to receive the high speed frequency 900MHz band.

Tokyo Electric Power Co ended up 0.5 per cent higher after jumping as much as 7 per cent in volatile trade at one point. The Japanese government approved $9 billion in additional support for the utility, although the trade minister warned it would not inject taxpayer money unless it got an adequate say in management.

Among financials, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group added 0.9 per cent, Mitsuibishi UFJ Financial Group put on 0.5 per cent, and Mizuho Financial Group gained 1.6 per cent.

Reuters