Nikkei average falls

Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.1 percent on Tuesday, dropping as the deadline passed for investors to receive dividends on Tokyo stocks for the financial first half-year and as the yen held near its highest in almost two weeks. But the market gained support from worries about possible Japanese intervention to stem the yen's strength, and from growing expectations that the Bank of Japan will discuss further moves to ease monetary policy at its meeting next week.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the Fed would announce purchases of a much smaller amount of bonds for a brief period and leave open the question of whether it would do more, a decision that would turn on how the economy was doing. The benchmark Nikkei shed 107.38 points to 9,495.76 and the broader Topix shed 0.8 percent to 842.65. Still the Nikkei has gained roughly 8 percent this month, its best monthly performance since March, helped by intervention by Japanese authorities to weaken the yen two weeks ago.
There was speculation that Japanese authorities also intervened last Friday, but the dollar's inability to stay above 85 yen and the fact that no intervention was confirmed helped the Nikkei fall back. The dollar edged down to 84.20 yen after falling as low as 84.11 yen on Monday, its weakest since the September 15 intervention.
Despite this month's gains, the Nikkei's rise this quarter is only about 1 percent, and it continues to lag other major stock markets. The S&P 500 has gained more than 10 percent this quarter, while South Korean shares have risen some 9.3 percent.
Support for the benchmark was expected to stay solid near 9,450, the level of its 75-day moving average. Shares of Takefuji Corp, which have fallen about 56 percent this year, did not trade for a second day due to a glut of sell orders. Sources said that the money lender plans to file for bankruptcy later on Tuesday with $5.2 billion in debt.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange, which suspended trade of the consumer lender's shares for most of Monday, placed it on watch for potential delisting, citing the possibility of it failing. Other consumer lenders also fell, with Acom down 1.3 percent at 1,327 yen and Promise slipping 0.9 percent to 683 yen.
A number of exporters slipped as well, hurt by a dip in New York shares, with Kyocera Corp down 2.2 percent at 8,000 yen and Sony Corp shedding 1.1 percent to 2,593 yen. Trade was thin, with 1.37 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo exchange's first section, its lowest volume in more than two weeks. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones, 987 to 504.