TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) - Confidence at big Japanese manufacturers was unchanged in June from three months earlier, a closely watched central bank survey showed on Friday, as a strong yen and slack overseas demand cloud the outlook for a fragile economic recovery.
The headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment stood at plus 6 in June, unchanged from the previous survey in March, the Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" survey showed.
The reading compared with the median estimate of plus 4 in a Reuters poll of economists, which would have matched the level of the June 2013 survey.
The vast majority of the companies surveyed replied before Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union.
The tankan's sentiment indexes are derived by subtracting the number of respondents who say conditions are poor from those who say they are good. A positive reading means optimists outnumber pessimists.
- Survey results on the BOJ's website: http://bit.ly/29nw8b0
- Reuters PREVIEW on the survey: (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chris Gallagher)