Tokyo shares finished lower on Friday after three days of gains, but Nintendo jumped as the videogame giant launched its newest console. A rally in the dollar against the yen Thursday boosted exporters and led to an initial advance but Tokyo's main indexes soon reversed course as investors locked in profits. The benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.49 percent, or 95.63 points, to end the day at 19,469.17, although it gained 0.96 percent over the week.
The broader Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.42 percent, or 6.64 points, to 1,558.05, adding 0.51 percent since last Friday.
"But with the odds of a US rate hike growing, the foreign-exchange rate is likely to maintain the current 114 yen-for-dollar range, which means corporate earnings will be even better for this fiscal year and also look good in the new year," Shunichi Otsuka, general manager of research and strategy at Ichiyoshi Securities, told Bloomberg News.
On Friday, the dollar was at 114.20 yen, slightly weaker than 114.39 yen late in New York but still better than the sub-112 yen levels seen earlier this week.
A weaker yen boosts the bottom line of Japan's exporters, lifting demand for their shares.
Japan's government pension fund, the world's biggest, posted a record 10.49 trillion yen quarterly gain in the last three months of 2016 as stocks around the world rallied following Donald Trump's US presidential election victory in November.
Next week, investors will be keeping an eye on Japan's October-December revised growth data and US payroll figures.
On Friday, Nintendo jumped 3.65 percent to 23,710 yen as its new console went on sale with gamers queuing up outside stores around the country.
Rival games console maker Sony rose 0.53 percent to 3,602 yen and market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo chain, tacked on 2.10 percent to end at 37,270 yen.
Toyota slipped 0.23 percent to 6,455 yen and SoftBank was down 1.62 percent at 8,440 yen.
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