(Adds SoftBank no comment and share price; detail on NikkeiBusiness Daily report)
LONDON/TOKYO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Vodafone Group PLC shares turned higher late on Tuesday, with traders citing aNikkei report suggesting the British mobile operator may becomea takeover target for Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp.
A Vodafone spokesman said the company had no comment. ASoftBank spokeswoman also declined to comment.
Vodafone shares closed up 1.1 percent at 208.90 pence,having traded as low as 205.50 pence earlier on Tuesday.
SoftBank shares were unchanged at 7,542 yen in Wednesdaymorning trade in Tokyo, compared with a 0.8 percent rise inTokyo's benchmark Nikkei average.
A Monday story in the Japanese-language Nikkei BusinessDaily on possible SoftBank acquisition targets quoted anunidentified executive as acknowledging that a Vodafoneacquisition was the type of bold move that SoftBank'sacquisitive CEO Masayoshi Son might consider.
"Oh, a Vodafone acquisition! That's just the sort of thingthat someone like our CEO might do. Among other things, it's acompany we're familiar with," it quoted the executive as saying.
The article also said there were views that SoftBank wouldtake another stab at acquiring T-Mobile US Inc. TheJapanese company's U.S. carrier, Sprint Corp, dropped abid to acquire T-Mobile after U.S. regulators showed no sign ofsoftening their resistance to a deal, although a SoftBankexecutive did not rule out the possibility of a future bid. (Reporting by Francesco Canepa, Sudip Kar-Gupta and VikramSubhedar in London; Additional reporting by Teppei Kasai inTokyo; Editing by David Clarke and Matt Driskill)