Japanese stocks fell for the fourth straight session on Thursday as investors sold Sony Corp and other exporters on continued worries about the strong yen and after a tumble in Wall Street shares.
Investors were also wary about buying ahead of a flurry of earnings reports due after the close from leading companies such as NEC Corp, Canon Inc and top broker Nomura Holdings Inc
"US stocks are showing signs of having entered a correction phase, and foreign investors are taking profits on recent gainers in Japan to make up for falls in that market," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi Securities.
The benchmark Nikkei average ended down 0.67 percent at 10,779.44 - its fourth straight fall representing the longest losing streak since August.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues slipped 0.76 percent to 1,050.13. That followed a tumble in US stocks after the Fed took a tiny step towards raising interest rates for the first time since 2000 by dropping a five-month-old pledge to keep them low "for a considerable period". Decliners far outnumbered gainers 1,288 to 188.
Volume picked up slightly, with 1.13 billion shares changing hands on the first section, up 1.25 percent on the previous session.
Japanese electronics conglomerates Fujitsu Ltd and NEC Corp posted strong profits on Thursday for the latest quarter, driven by red-hot demand for flat-screen TVs, photo-taking phones and other digital gadgets.
Shortly after Fujitsu posted its first net profit in three quarters, its shares ended down 0.58 percent at 684 yen. They are still more than double their multi-decade low of 300 yen hit in early 2003.
Sony shares slid 1.39 percent to 4,260 yen on profit-taking after having gained around 15 percent this month in the run-up to its quarterly earnings announcement.
After the close on Wednesday, the consumer electronics maker posted better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its net profit forecast for the full year by 10 percent thanks to the strong euro, which pushes up yen-denominated profits.
Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd, Japan's biggest drug-maker, put on 1.16 percent to 4,360 yen, while Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, the world's largest investor-owned power utility, was up 0.84 percent to 2,390 yen.
After the close, Canon Inc said its net profit rose 45 percent in 2003 thanks to healthy demand for office copiers and booming sales of digital cameras, and it forecast a fifth straight year of record profit in 2004. Its shares ended up 0.18 percent at 5,550 yen.
Nomura shed 2.55 percent to 1,793 yen before reporting a 5.1 percent rise in quarterly profit propelled by a boom in equity financing that boosted fee income.
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