TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei share average fell on Friday after a sharp drop in European shares curbed risk appetite and as China data hurt sentiment, but index-heavy Fast Retailing Co rose after reporting strong monthly sales.
Growth in China's services sector eased in September to an eight-month low after new orders shrank for the first time in at
least a year, an official survey showed on Friday, adding to worries that the economy was losing further momentum.
Fast Retailing, which operates Uniqlo clothing stores, rose 1.2 percent and contributed 20 hefty points to the Nikkei after the company said its September same-store sales jumped 20 percent on year due to strong winter clothes sales due to the cool weather.
The Nikkei share average fell 0.4 percent to 15,598.90 by mid-morning. On Thursday, it tumbled 2.6 percent as disappointing global manufacturing activity stocked concerns about global growth.
For the week, the index has shed 0.4 percent.
The European Central Bank did little to cheer investors on Thursday after it gave no new hints of an imminent sovereign bond buying programme and fell short of market expectations for greater details on its plan to buy secured debt.
"We expect more drops in October," said Hiroyuki Nakai, chief strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
"Investors are concerned about global growth and a double whammy of an impact from the end of Fed's quantitative easing and the civil unrest in Hong Kong."
He also said that the Tokyo market will likely remain directionless for the rest of the day ahead of a closely watched US jobs report later in the day.
Exporters were mixed, with Toyota Motor Corp falling 0.4 percent, Sony Corp dropping 0.5 percent and Panasonic Corp rising 0.2 percent.
The broader Topix dropped 0.1 percent to 1,278.15, and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 declined 0.2 percent to 11,621.01.
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