Tokyo stocks decline, exporters hit

Japanese stocks closed weaker for a second session on Thursday as further losses on Wall Street and a rise in the yen hit big exporters, including office machine maker Canon Inc
But gains in banks and material makers, including steel firms, limited the overall fall.
The benchmark Nikkei average ended down 1.19 percent at 11,297.04, extending Wednesday's 0.86 percent fall. It was two percent below a 21-month closing high marked last Friday.
The TOPIX index of all first-section shares declined 0.71 percent to 1,120.34.
"The Nasdaq's fall below the 2,000 level hit the tech sector and dragged down the key indices here. But sentiment looks okay to me," said Kenichi Azuma, an equity strategist at Cosmo Securities.
Banks and domestic fund managers often sell shares ahead of the end of the fiscal year on March 31. Traders said such selling had put a lid on the Tokyo market.
Among blue-chip exporters, consumer electronics giant Sony Corp fell 1.34 percent to 4,430 yen after the US Nasdaq broke below 2,000, falling for the fourth session in a row and lurching into negative territory for the year.
A halt in the yen's fall also fuelled selling of exporters. The dollar was around 110.80 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, down from recent highs above 112 yen, and the euro fell more than one yen on the day to 134.56 yen
Office machine maker Canon, three-quarters of whose revenue comes from outside Japan, slumped 3.67 percent to 5,250 yen.
Canon's fall came on top of a two percent loss on Wednesday, a day after the company cut its 2005 sales forecast by five percent due to recent yen strength and price competition. Auto makers were hit, with Honda Motor Co, Japan's second-biggest car firm, falling 3.61 percent to 4,800 yen.
Against that, short-term dealers and foreign investors remained interested in issues that have seen high volume of late, such as selected steel makers. Sumitomo Metal Industries, Japan's third-biggest steel maker by crude output, rose 1.67 percent to 122 yen. It was the most active issue, taking about seven percent of the total volume on the Tokyo bourse's first section.
It earlier rose as high as 125 yen, its best level since September 1999, on the view that it would be one of the firms that would benefit from a recovery in Japan's economy.
Volume on the Tokyo bourse's first section jumped with 1.948 billion shares changing hands, up from 1.663 billion shares on Wednesday and the highest total since Thursday last week when 2.113 billion shares were traded, an eight-month high. Decliners outnumbered gainers 828 to 601.
However, UFJ Holdings, Japan's fourth-biggest banking group, was up 3.12 percent at 595,000 yen and the top banking group, Mizuho Financial Group, extended its gains into an 11th session, rising 0.76 percent to 396,000.
Foreigners' net buying of Japanese shares came to a record 967.8 billion yen ($8.73 billion) last week, compared with net buying of 250.70 billion yen of shares the week before.