Nikkei slips as BOJ impact shortlived; worst April in 7 years

(Tokyo markets will be closed on Monday, reopen on Tuesday)

* Nikkei logs its worst April performance in 7 years

* Strategists say ETF, REIT buying a positive surprise

* Investor attention turns to earnings, Europe

* Nintendo tumbles after posting operating loss

* Softbank surges 3 pct after big dividend hike

By Mari Saito

TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
ended lower in choppy trade and closed out its worst April since
2005 on Friday, after the Bank of Japan's move to boost its bond
buying failed to ignite lasting confidence among investors over
the fragile economy.

Stocks briefly picked up and the yen weakened after the BOJ
announced during the afternoon session that it would increase
its asset purchases by 10 trillion yen ($124 billion) and expand
buying of exchange-traded funds and real estate-linked funds.

But strategists said market participants had mostly priced
in the BOJ decision and so they quickly pocketed profits ahead
of a three-day weekend. Tokyo markets are closed on Monday for a
national holiday.

"Markets reacted positively to the BOJ's move to expand its
balance sheet by buying more risk assets such as ETFs. But in
comparison to operations by overseas central banks, Japan still
lacks dynamism," said Seiki Orimi, a senior investment
strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

"It's like the bank is being publicly humiliated by the
government into doing more for the economy. And they're still
not going far enough," Orimi said.

The benchmark Nikkei ended down 40.94 points at
9,520.89, reversing course after jumping as high as 9,691.70
shortly after the BOJ announcement.

The broader Topix slipped 0.7 percent to 804.27.

Trading volume spiked, with 2.19 billion shares changing
hands on the main board, up from 1.56 billion shares on
Thursday.

MARKET FOCUS

With the initial euphoria over the BOJ quickly fading,
investors are turning their focus to domestic corporate earnings
and Europe.

Highlighting some of the challenges facing Japan's blue
chips this earnings season, Nintendo skidded 5.6
percent after it posted its first ever annual operating loss on
Thursday, citing shrinking sales of its ageing Wii gaming
console and weak demand for its new 3DS handheld device.

After the closing bell, Sharp Corp reported a
record net loss of 376.1 billion yen ($4.66 billion) for the
just-ended fiscal year, hammered by weak sales of LCD panels and
TVs. The stock gained 1.2 percent ahead of the
results.

Still, the Topix's one-month earnings momentum - analysts'
earnings upgrades minus downgrades as a percentage of total
estimates - improved further to 5.4 percent in April from 3.6
percent last month, data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S showed.

Nearly two-thirds of the 27 Nikkei companies that reported
January-March earnings before Friday beat or met market
expectations, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed, much
better than the previous quarter.

Bucking the market, Softbank Corp surged 3.1
percent after it hiked its dividend to 40 yen from 5 yen after
posting an operating profit of 675.3 billion yen ($8.4 billion)
for the year to March.

"It was certainly impressive that the BOJ decided to buy
more ETFs and REITs, which was a slight surprise. But once
that's out, we're all looking to tonight's Italian debt auction
and GDP figures from the United States," said Kenichi Hirano,
operating officer at Tachibana Securities.

Concerns over peripheral economies were sparked once again
after Standard & Poor's cut Spain's credit rating by two notches
and said the country's outlook could deteriorate even further
unless ambitious measures were taken at the European level.

The Nikkei shed 5.6 percent this month, marking its worst
April performance in seven years on the back of a global
equities correction driven by mixed economic data out of the
United States, slower growth in China and resurgence of European
sovereign debt worries.
($1 = 80.7900 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau and Sophie Knight; Editing
by Chris Gallagher)