Japanese stocks retreated Tuesday as investors unloaded shares in chipmakers and financial firms.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index fell 1.5 percent to 13,250.43. The wider Topix index of all shares listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 1.8 percent to 1,282.69.
Chipmakers fell as their U.S. counterpart Advanced Micro Devices slipped 2.2 percent after the company said it expects its first-quarter revenue to fall 15 percent from the previous three-month period to about US$1.5 billion (euro960 million).
In Japan, Elpida Memory Inc. plunged 10 percent to 3,460 yen, and Tokyo Electron Ltd. slid 3.8 percent to 6,110 yen. Advantest Corp. fell 5.5 percent to 2,735 yen.
Retailer Aeon Co. lost 7.5 percent to 1,229 yen on poor results for the year ended Feb. 20 and a bleak outlook for the fiscal year ending in February 2009.
Meanwhile, Fukuoka Financial Group Inc. tanked 13 percent to 451 yen after brokerages cut its rating on a poor outlook for the year ended March, and following the bank's own downward revision of its midterm plan.
Market observers say investors are growing concerned that the yen's continued strength will hurt exporters' January-March results and drag down their earnings for the fiscal year ended in March.
"The market may have absorbed fears about the credit crunch, but it doesn't seem to have yet factored in signs of a slowdown in the economy," said Yasuyoshi Shizuma, senior sales person at BNP Paribas.
In currencies, the dollar fell to 102.40 yen midafternoon from 103.09 late Monday in New York. The euro rose to US$1.5733 from US$1.5711.
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