Sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers held steady in July, with the Reuters Tankan manufacturing index unchanged at +13 points, according to the latest Reuters Tankan survey released on Wednesday.
The reading missed the consensus forecast of +14 tracked by Trading Economics.
It marked the 16th consecutive month that sentiment was positive among manufacturers in Japan.
The poll, carried out from July 1 to July 10, obtained responses from 218 out of the 511 companies surveyed, Reuters said.
Meanwhile, the non-manufacturers' sentiment index fell to +25 from +32 the previous month due to cost pressures and concerns about the Middle East conflict, said Reuters.