TOKYO, Tokyo province: Tokyo stocks lost 1.48 percent Friday, dragged down by a stronger yen, while investors look ahead to weekend parliamentary elections in Japan.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 218.59 points at 14,589.91, while the Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.82 percent, or 10.03 points, to 1,211.98.
The day got off to a positive start after Wall Street saw another record close, but the Nikkei reversed course in late morning trade, tumbling 2.67 percent at one stage.
"Foreign investors are the most common buyers of futures and had been picking them up over the last 10 days or so in anticipation of the Sunday upper house diet elections," Tachibana Securities market advisor Kenichi Hirano told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It's very possible that with an overheated and thin-volume market, they are testing to see how far the Nikkei could fall."
The national polls will elect half of Japan's 242-member upper chamber of parliament, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party is expected to win. A solid showing would give Abe the legislative muscle to press with an economy-boosting plan that could include some unpopular reforms.
In forex trade the yen rebounded after seeing losses in the United States. The dollar slipped to 100.14 yen, compared with 100.50 yen in New York late Thursday.
The stronger yen hit exporters. Toyota slipped 0.15 percent to 6,470 yen while Sony lost 0.27 percent to 2,188 yen.
Panasonic edged down 0.11 percent to 879 yen after US authorities said the Japanese giant and its subsidiary Sanyo have each pleaded guilty to price-fixing, agreeing to pay $56.5 million in fines.
Japan Airlines shares fell 0.93 percent to 5,320 yen after one of its Dreamliner airplanes aborted a flight from Boston to Tokyo Thursday. (AFP)
