Japanese shares bounced off Thursday's lows on Friday, supported by stronger utility sector. However, global growth concerns after weak PMI releases coupled with escalated territorial tensions with China continued to create heavy pressure on Japanese equities. The Nikkei 225 Index added 0.25% to end the week at 9,110.00. Seven out of ten sectors within the index rose. Utilities and oil and gas companies were the top-performers. Chubu Electric Power, Kansai Electric Power and Osaka Gas climbed 4.44%, 4.35% and 1.78%, respectively. Among oil and gas companies, JX Holdings and Inpex advanced 0.69% and 1.98% on higher oil prices. Meanwhile, Sharp Corp soared 4.95% on news that the company is in talks with Intel Corp on possible investments from Intel Corp. At the same time, technology and telecommunication firms retreated. Citizen Holdings and Hitachi dropped 1.84% and 1.07% while Nippon Telegraph & Telephone and Softbank slid 0.65% and 0.47%.