Japan's Nikkei average fell nearly 3 percent on Friday for its worst one-day percentage loss in over a month as investors took profits before a long weekend, worried that the yen could rise further towards 15-year highs against the dollar. Trade was thin as technicals turned increasingly bearish, with some in the market saying large-lot selling of futures by a foreign investor shortly after the open had set off position-cutting that picked up speed.
The benchmark Nikkei shed 2.9 percent to 9,408.36 after briefly falling more than 3 percent, its worst such loss since June 7, breaking through a succession of support levels. It lost 1.8 percent on the week. "Risk avoidance is increasing and investors are unwinding long positions now ahead of the weekend," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley. Japanese markets are closed on Monday, a situation that makes some traders nervous since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 also happened on a three-day weekend in Japan.
The dollar weakened to near 2-1/2-month lows against a basket of currencies on Friday and was heading back towards a seven-month low of 86.96 yen hit in early July. Market players said earlier this week that long positions had accumulated in the market, particularly in blue chip exporters such as Sony Corp and Toyota Motor Corp
Canon Inc slipped 3.2 percent to 3,380 yen and Tokyo Electron lost 2.8 percent to 4,820 yen. Sony Corp fell 5 percent to 2,404 yen. Few sectors escaped the broad-based selling. One gainer was trader Mitsui & Co, which edged up 0.4 percent to 1,135 yen after BP said on Thursday that no oil was leaking from its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the accident began in April. Mitsui & Co owns 10 percent of the well.
Trade was thin but picked up slightly, with 1.7 billion shares traded on the Tokyo exchange's first section. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by more than 6 percent.
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