* Fast Retailing strong, sales to reach 1 trln-Nikkei
* Toyota gains after sales leap in U.S.
By Sophie Knight
TOKYO, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average was little changed in early Wednesday trade as gains for index heavyweights such as Fast Retailing Co
were offset by broader concerns over a bailout for Spain.
Fast Retailing moved up 2.6 percent, giving the benchmark 19 positive points, after the Nikkei daily said the operator of popular clothing firm Uniqlo should see sales top 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) in the year ending August 2013.
Toyota Motor Co
also lent support, rising 1.4 percent in heavy trade after its U.S. passenger car sales jumped 42 percent in September from the same month last year. Honda Motor Co
saw a 31 percent increase in the same period, helping its share price rise 0.5 percent.
But the Nikkei added just 1.4 points to 8,787.51 on a lack of incentives to buy other shares, and as investors brooded over when, or indeed whether, Spain will request a bailout after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would not ask for one soon.
"We have problems with Greece, and with Spain, but without any really positive news out it's very difficult to judge where a comfortable range for the Nikkei should be," said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO of Fukoku Capital Management.
Investors are also waiting on a flurry of big events over the next few days, with the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan both due to start policy meetings on Thursday and U.S. payroll data due on Friday.
"With such a lack of incentives, I have a feeling we're going to see overreactions to factors that usually don't cause big waves in the market, like Australia's trade data," said Masayuki Doshida, senior market analyst at Rakuten Securities.
Australia is due to release monthly trade data at 0130 GMT, with investors fearing that a slowdown in China will have further crimped the country's exports of raw materials such as metals and coal.
Concern about demand for Japanese products going off the boil in China, a major driver of global growth and Japan's biggest trade partner, has intensified over the past three weeks after a territorial dispute triggered anti-Japan protests and boycotts.
Despite that, the president of Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
said the precision machinery firm could escape those headwinds thanks to strong demand from smartphone makers, and its Chinese factories were at full capacity.
The stock rose 0.6 percent.
Elsewhere, Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd
sagged 4.5 percent to 1,210 yen, hitting a record low after U.S. biotechnology company ArQule Inc
said it will discontinue a late-stage trial of a lung cancer drug the two companies are co-developing after an interim analysis showed the drug would not improve overall survival rates.
Daiichi Sankyo has lost 21.2 percent this year, underperforming a 3.7 percent rise in the Nikkei.
The broader Topix
was also flat, adding just 0.1 points to 731.33. ($1 = 78.0400 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Richard Pullin)
((sophie.knight@thomsonreuters.com)(+81 3 6441 1833)(Reuters Messaging:)(sophie.knight.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MARKETS JAPAN STOCKS/