• Home
• /
• Business

Nikkei falls for 6th week, tech shares hurt

TOKYO - Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 0.7 percent on Friday for its sixth straight week of falls as Kyocera Corp and other tech shares dropped on disappointing results from Google Inc.

Mitsubishi Corp and other trading houses slid after oil fell more than $15 dollars over the three previous days.

Early Tokyo gains on better-than-expected results from JPMorgan evaporated as investors took stock of after-the-bell results from Google, Microsoft and Merrill Lynch which all came in under expectations. More corporate US earnings later in the day including Citigroup's increased natural caution ahead of a three-day weekend.

‘The big risk is that Wall Street will plunge, especially the Nasdaq -- the kind of move that Japanese stocks, with their dependence on high-tech shares, are really vulnerable to,’ said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Shinko Securities.

‘The market had factored in that US financial firms would announce poor results, but nobody expected that the same thing could happen to high-techs. There's a lot of nervousness today.’

The benchmark Nikkei closed down 84.25 points at 12,803.70. It lost 1.8 percent on the week.

The broader Topix shed 0.9 percent to 1,252.43.

‘Longer-term, people are concerned by the fact that even though US authorities have talked a lot about support for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, there doesn't seem to be as much positive impact as the market would like,’ said Seiichi Miura, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

HIGH-TECHS HURT Electronic parts maker Kyocera slid 2.4 percent to 8,850 yen, becoming the biggest drag on the Nikkei by volume weight. It was followed by industrial robot maker Fanuc Ltd which shed 1.4 percent to 9,280 yen, and Tokyo Electron Ltd Ltd which lost 1.8 percent to 6,130 yen.

Among oil-related firms, Mitsubishi Corp shed 2.5 percent to 3,070 yen and fellow trader Mitsui & Co lost 1.7 percent to 2,035 yen. Itochu Corp slipped 2.9 percent to 990 yen.

Inpex Holdings slid 3.4 percent to 1.13 million yen, having lost 8.9 percent for the week.

Mizuho Financial Group lost 0.6 percent to 541,000 yen and top lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was down 0.4 percent to 951 yen.

Nomura Holdings Inc edged up 0.2 percent to 1,534 yen and Daiwa Securities Group Inc slipped 0.4 percent to 918 yen.

Trade was light, with 1.79 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week's daily average of 2 billion.

Declining shares beat advancing ones by more than three to one.