* Nikkei crawls up 0.3 percent, gains capped before earnings * Advantest, other high-tech shares lead market higher
* Nippon Steel down after Q1 loss, wider H1 loss forecast
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, July 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average edged up 0.3 percent on Wednesday to a seven-week closing high, buoyed by high-tech shares such as Tokyo Electron, but gains were capped ahead of key company earnings.
Nippon Steel fell 3.5 percent after the company said it swung to a quarterly loss, widened its first-half loss forecast by 10 percent, and said it would not pay a first half dividend.
But trade was thin and investors were hesitant, after a nine-day rising streak was broken on Tuesday -- the longest such run in 21 years -- and ahead of a slew of Japanese earnings this week.
Honda Motor and Nomura Holdings announced results after the bell.
"There's over 700 companies still left to report earnings, and when you add in a bit of fatigue after the recent winning streak, people are reluctant to buy," said Noritsugu Hirakawa, a strategist at Okasan Securities.
"Results in general have not been so bad, but in a lot of cases this is a reflection of cost-cutting, and that impact will eventually wear off. The issue is whether there will be real growth after this, and investors need to see this for themselves." Analysts said the downside was solid on buying by overseas investors and some short-covering, with buying of futures also providing some support to the cash market.
The benchmark Nikkei gained 25.98 points to 10,113.24, its highest close since June 12. The broader Topix was flat at 930.36.
The Nikkei edged down 0.01 percent on Tuesday as investors booked profits after it climbed 11.5 percent during a nine-day run to Monday, its longest stretch of gains since 1988.
"There are no real reasons to sell, but perhaps just a hint of overheating -- still, not enough to push the Nikkei back below 10,000," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.
"The market wants to check company results and also see the wave of Japanese economic data on Friday."
The consumer price index, jobless rate and household spending -- all for June -- are due out on Friday.
STEEL MIXED, HIGH TECH HEALTHY Nippon Steel, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, slipped to 364 yen after its earnings came out.
It widened its recurring loss forecast for the April-September first half by 10 billion yen to 110 billion yen, but kept its full-year outlook at nil, against a consensus estimate of a 3.4 billion yen loss from 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
But rival JFE Holdings extended gains, jumping 4.2 percent after it forecast a full-year profit on Tuesday and after Goldman Sachs raised its rating to "buy" from "sell".
JFE, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, climbed to 3,700 yen after rising 7 percent on Tuesday on higher output and an improved shipbuilding business.
Its recurring loss for April-June came to 67.3 billion yen, compared with a profit of 112.10 billion yen a year earlier and it forecast an annual recurring profit of 40 billion yen.
High-tech shares helped the Nikkei rise, with Advantest Corp, a maker of chip testing equipment, up 3.3 percent to 1,982 yen. Tokyo Electron rose 2.2 percent to 4,740 yen and Nikon Corp, a maker of steppers, climbed 6.8 percent to 1,869 yen.
Trade was light on the Tokyo exchange's first section, with 1.9 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week's daily average of 2.3 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones, 807 to 739. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)