Nikkei finishes below 16,000

The Nikkei average fell 1.84 percent on Monday to close below 16,000 for the first time in more than two months, as investors dumped Fanuc Ltd and other tech exporters amid concerns about the US economy.
Elpida Memory Inc and other firms with disappointing earnings numbers lost ground while oil-related shares such as INPEX Holdings Inc slumped following a slide in the price of crude oil from last week.
Masaki Iso, chief investment officer at Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd, said the market was weighed down by worries that further rate hikes would lead to a hard landing for the US economy, the world's largest and a key engine of global growth.
"Foreign investors have pulled back their money as such concerns centring on the US economy grew," he said.
"But I think selling, at least for now, has subsided. The market should remain firm this week," he added.
Industrial robot maker Fanuc, which gets about 60 percent of its sales outside Japan, lost 4.63 percent to 10,090 yen, while TDK Corp, a producer of electronics parts and also a big exporter, slid 2.85 percent to 9,210 yen.
The Nikkei average lost 297.58 points to 15,857.87, closing below 16,000 for the first time since March 8. The benchmark has shed about 1,300 points since May 8.
The TOPIX index lost 1.39 percent to 1,615.86.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Japan's biggest banking group, and No 2 Mizuho Financial Group Inc, both lost ground ahead of their annual earnings reports, which were released after the market closed.
Iso said many retail investors have bought stocks on credit, meaning they have to sell their shares in coming months to pay back their loans, capping further gains in stocks.
Reflecting that sentiment, a Reuters poll on Monday showed that Japanese individual investors have become significantly less bullish about stocks in the past month due to the high oil price, concerns about the US economy, and a strengthening yen.
Benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond futures jumped more than a half-point to hit a seven-week high on Monday, as solid gains in the bond cash market and weaker share prices prompted a wave of short-covering.
Shinji Igarashi, equity manager at Chuo Securities, said some investors appeared to be buying bond futures and selling stock futures, pushing down the cash stock market: "There seem to be some speculative moves in the market," he said.
Shares of energy-related firms were among the biggest percentage losers after US crude futures settled nearly $1 lower on Friday, hit by a broad sell-off in commodity markets.
INPEX, Japan's biggest oil explorer, lost 5.3 percent to 947,000 yen and Nippon Mining Holdings Inc, which includes oil refiner Japan Energy, declined 8 percent to 948 yen.
In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) dropped 2.4 percent to 1.63 million yen and Mizuho Financial was down 0.2 percent at 940,000 yen.
After the close, Mizuho posted a 3.6 percent gain in annual profit and forecast a further rise this year while MUFG recorded a return to the black but forecast a surprisingly large drop in earnings after having already tapped excess loan reserves.
Net profits at Japan's six major banking groups, all of which report this week, likely surpassed 3 trillion yen in 2005/06, four times the previous year's total and beating the peaks set in the boom years of the 1980s.
Steel stocks shed earlier gains, unable to buck the overall bearish trend. They initially advanced as Arcelor said on Sunday it was willing to study Mittal Steel's improved take-over offer and business plan to create a global steel giant, fuelling expectations for an industry shake-up.
Nippon Steel Corp, the world's third-largest steel maker, dropped 1.2 percent to 419 yen while fourth-ranked JFE Holdings Inc slipped 1.1 percent to 4,640 yen, after earlier hitting its all-time high of 4,820 yen.
Among the notable winners, Sony Corp rose 0.8 percent to 5,120 yen and KDDI Corp gained 1.4 percent to 737,000 yen. KDDI, Japan's second-largest telecoms operator, said on Monday it would launch Walkman brand music phones made by Sony Ericsson, Sony's venture with Sweden's Ericsson, in Japan.
Elpida Memory Inc lost 5.2 percent to 4,890 yen after the chip maker on Friday restated its results for the last business year to show a larger net loss due to costs related to settling lawsuits.
Trading volume edged up from Friday, with 1.906 billion shares changing hands.
That was still lower than last week's daily average of 2.02 billion shares. Decliners outnumbered gainers by a ratio of about 5 to 2.