TOKYO, April 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average trimmed its gains to 0.1 percent on Thursday after data showed China's quarterly growth at its weakest ever, prompting investors to lock in profits after the benchmark rose more than 3 percent in early trade. But the market was supported by hopes that the U.S. recession could be abating, while NEC Electronics ended trade bid up by its daily limit of 12 percent on news it is in merger talks with Renesas Technology Corp.

Analysts said the Chinese data was an excuse for investors to lock in profits after the Nikkei rose more than 3 percent in the morning, noting that the gross domestic product data came with a slew of figures for March that suggested China may already be on the road to recovery. "The GDP data was almost in line with predictions so it wasn't really that bad. Basically, the numbers gave investors a reason to sell after the morning's rebound," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 clung to gains of 12.30 points at 8,755.26 after earlier touching 9,030.00, one of several recent failed efforts to break significantly above 9,000. The broader Topix lost 0.4 percent to 832.04. "There's no reason for anybody to buy the Nikkei up much over 9,000 ahead of all the U.S. earnings we have coming up, which are making people nervous," said Yamagishi. JPMorgan is set to report results on Thursday, along with Google and Citigroup on Friday.

China's annual economic growth slowed to 6.1 percent from 6.8 percent in the final three months of last year, marking the weakest expansion on records going back to 1992.

But urban fixed-asset investment surged unexpectedly in the quarter, while annual industrial output growth rebounded in March from a record low in the first two months of 2009.

"Not all the figures that came out were bad, with some suggesting we could start seeing an improvement next time," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a supervisor at the investment advisory section of Okasan Securities. "Plus this data could raise expectations of another Chinese economic stimulus plan."