Japanese shares fell Friday as sentiment dampened on fresh worries over a slump in the U.S. economy following worse-than-expected earnings results from American high-tech giants.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 84.25 points, or 0.65 percent, to 12,803.70.
"Despite strong gains on Wall Street yesterday, sentiment was sluggish as investors were disappointed by earnings reports from major U.S. high-tech firms," said Yutaka Miura, senior strategist at Shinko Securities Co. Ltd.
Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and Google Inc. announced quarterly results Thursday after the U.S. market's close, with Microsoft offering a softer-than-expected outlook for the quarter ending September.
Earnings by IBM and Google were also worse than forecasts, raising fresh worries over the health of the U.S. economy, the world's largest.
Investors were expecting the poor U.S. earnings results to result in a heavy sell-off on Wall Street on Friday, Miura said.
Apart from the U.S. factors, the Nikkei index closed lower as investors sold stocks to adjust their positions ahead of a long weekend. Japan's financial markets will be closed Monday due to a public holiday.
Japan's top automaker, Toyota Motor Corp., fell 0.64 percent to 4,650 yen. Its rival Honda Motor Co. rose 0.59 percent to 3,420 yen.
Sony Corp. declined 1.82 percent to 4,310 yen, while Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., which sells products under its Panasonic brand, dropped 2.06 percent to 2,130 yen.
Banking giant Mizuho Financial Group Inc. edged down 0.55 percent to 541,000 yen.
The Topix index of all Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues fell 0.89 percent to 1,252.43.
In currencies, the dollar traded at 106.01 yen midafternoon in Tokyo, down from 106.24 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro stood at $1.5868, compared with $1.5852.
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