Nikkei closed sharply lower Friday following overnight tumble on Wall Street and top automaker Toyota Motor Corp.'s sharp downward revision of its earnings forecast for fiscal 2008.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 316.14 points, or 3.55 percent, from Thursday to 8,583.00. The Nikkei briefly fell over 7percent in mid-morning trading.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange shed 30.30 points, or 3.33 percent, to 879.00.
Stocks declined almost across the board, led by transport equipment, mining, and iron and steel issues. The only gainer was the warehouse and wharf sector.
Investors' confidence was battered by the sharp revision of Toyota's half-year earnings forecast, which is as much as 70 percent. Toyota Motor, which fell by its daily limit at one point, ended the day's session at 3,460 yen, down 350 yen, or over 9 percent.
Other auto shares also ended sharply lower, with Nissan Motor losing 33 yen, or over 7 percent, to 422 yen, and Honda Motor sliding 215 yen, or nearly 9 percent, to 2,260 yen.
In mid-afternoon trading, Tokyo stocks trimmed their losses, with the Nikkei coming close to positive territory, due to rises in key Asian equities and the U.S. dollar's appreciation to the 97yen level after its fall in the morning to the 96 yen level.
Other major decliners include iron and steel issues which are sensitive to economic fluctuations. Volume leader Nippon Steel shed 28 yen, or over 8 percent, to 303 yen.
On the First Section, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 1,360 to 296, with 58 others remaining unchanged.
Trading volume on the main section came to 2,717.04 million shares, up from Thursday's 2,376.34 million.
The TSE's Second Section index was down 27.03 points, or 1.35 percent, to 1,982.27 on a volume of 33.70 million shares. On the Osaka Securities Exchange, the near-term December Nikkei 225 index futures contract was down 140 points to 8,660.
Source: Xinhua
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