* Nikkei clings to gains in thin trade
* JAL tumbles on growing concern about future
* Bank shares down on profit-taking, policy uncertainty
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average edged up 0.2 percent on Friday, with gains in energy shares such as Inpex on higher oil prices offsetting falls in banks and another 10 percent tumble for Japan Airlines. The cash-strapped airline is reconsidering a plan to sell shares in its group firms, Kyodo news agency reported. Sources told Reuters earlier this week that JAL has asked its creditors for a total of 600 billion yen in financial aid as part of a restructuring plan.
Just after morning trade ended, Japan's Transport Minister said the draft plan for JAL's restructuring was progressing smoothly.
But market players said the company's shares, which also lost 10 percent on Thursday and have lost roughly 26 percent this week, were being hit largely by worries about the firm's long-term prospects.
"There's increasing concern about the future of the company and whether it might be heading for a General Motors-style bankruptcy," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 18.97 points to 10,257.62 in thin trade, confined to a narrow range of less than 50 points, a day after hitting a three-week closing high.
The broader Topix lost 0.3 percent to 910.15.
Energy shares such gained after U.S. crude oil futures rose more than 3 percent to a one-year high in the wake of a sharp and unexpected fall for gasoline and distillate inventories. Oil and gas field developer Inpex rose 2.3 percent to 805,000 yen.
But banks were hit, hurt by profit-taking after results from Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc's failed to match the high standards set by JPMorgan Chase & Co and also by concerns about JAL.
Sources have said JAL plans to ask creditors for 250 billion yen worth of debt forgiveness and debt-for-equity swaps.
A loan moratorium proposed by Banking Minister Shizuka Kamei also hangs over the sector.
"This whole moratorium issue is making the situation for banks so uncertain that nobody wants to buy their shares," Ichiyoshi's Akino said.
Top lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group lost 4.1 percent to 465 yen, No. 3 bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group fell 3.4 percent to 3,140 yen, and Mizuho Financial Group, Japan's second-largest bank, lost 2.3 percent to 170 yen.
Goldman's earnings nearly quadrupled and Citigroup's third-quarter loss narrower than expected but Citigroup also booked $8 billion in credit losses and the results set off a wave of profit-taking on Wall Street..
"There's a growing risk of profit-taking on a sense that U.S. shares may be overpriced, with additional financial company results likely to prompt profit-taking even if they're better than expected, as happened yesterday," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
"Even so, the pace of economic recovery seems to be better than expected, as shown by strong U.S. tech earnings, and global stock markets are trending upwards."
Results from Google Inc and IBM bested Wall Street estimates, and along with a robust performance by Intel Corp earlier this week, helped to underscore that demand from both consumers and businesses is returning.
A broad range of defensive shares, such as drugmakers and soy sauce giant Kikkoman Corp, also gained.
Trade was thin, with some 910 million shares changing hands on the Tokyo Exchange's first section compared with last week's morning average of 980 million.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones, 861 to 631. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)