TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average

struggled for direction on Monday, as a halt in United States

attacks on Iran pushed oil prices lower, though investors

avoided aggressive bets ahead of key earnings this week.

The benchmark Nikkei fluctuated between gains and

losses and was last down 0.22% at 64,472.09. The broader Topix

rose 0.51% to 4,031.75.

The U.S. suspended its bombing campaign on Iran after nearly

two weeks of heavy airstrikes, while a senior Iranian official

told Reuters Tehran would also halt its own attacks as long as

Washington did the same. Oil prices fell more than 5% on Monday

on expectations of a diplomatic off-ramp.

"Reduced concern over higher crude prices should support

Japanese shares overall, while buybacks are also expected in

stocks that had seen an increasingly corrective tone through

last week," said Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony

Financial Group.

"However, with major U.S. cloud companies due to report

earnings this week, investors may be reluctant to aggressively

chase the upside as they assess capital spending plans and the

monetisation of AI investment," he said.

Investors are focused on a busy week of earnings

announcements in the U.S. and Japan, as well as central bank

decisions. In Tokyo, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest ( ADTTF )

is due to report earnings on Wednesday, while memory

chipmaker Kioxia ( KXHCF ) is scheduled to report on Friday.

Market breadth was positive, with 173 advancers on the

Nikkei 225 against 52 decliners.

Kioxia ( KXHCF ) slid 7%, while cables and optical fibre

producer Fujikura ( FKURF ) lost 6.18%. Shin-Etsu Chemical ( SHECF )

, a global leader in silicon and chemical products, fell

as much as 6.13% after its full-year consolidated net profit

forecast missed market expectations.

By contrast, software testing and quality assurance services

provider Shift was the top gainer on the index, rising

7.04%, followed by consulting services provider BayCurrent ( BYCRF )

, gaining 6.04%, and online game publisher Nexon ( NEXOF )

, up by 5.68%.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)