TOKYO (Financial Times) -- The Japanese stock market was almost flat Tuesday morning, as the rebound of several blue-chip shares that had been falling fast in recent days offset a decline in property shares.

By midday the Nikkei was down 0.1 percent at 17,947.61, while the broader Topix was up 0.2 percent at 1,760.44. KDDI, Japan's second-biggest phone company, rebounded 4.3 percent to Y866,000 after reporting a 15.6 percent increase in quarterly operating profit in the three months to June on Monday after markets closed. The company has gained market share since the October introduction of number portability, which allows customers to keep their mobile number despite changing carriers. Signs of a brewing price war had sparked a tumble in the share prices of KDDI and other mobile carriers over the past week. Japan's other mobile carriers also advanced. NTT DoCoMo (NYSE:DCM), the largest, was up 1.7 percent at Y179,000. Softbank, the communications conglomerate which has a mobile phone arm, was up 0.6 percent at Y2,590. Shares in Tokyo Electric Power, Japan's biggest electricity company, also bounced back after steep falls following an earthquake eight days ago that damaged its largest plant and threatened to slash the company's profitability for the year. Tepco was up 4 percent at Y3,360 Property stocks fell after real estate fund KK DaVinci Advisors said it had failed in a Y103bn hostile bid for building leasing company TOC. DaVinci was down 1.9 percent to Y101,000, with TOC 2.8 percent lower at Y1,220. Mitsui Fudosan, Japan's biggest property company, declined 1.6 percent to Y3,180. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's real estate investment trust index fell 2.1 percent to 2,068.33