Tokyo stocks finished sharply lower Friday following Wall Street's plunge overnight. The U.S. dollar strengthened against the Japanese yen and the euro.
The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues closed at 11,370.69 points, down 192.48 points, or 1.66 percent. It was the largest one-day fall in point terms, tying 192.48-point drop on March 29. On Thursday, the index lost 74.35 points, or 0.64 percent.
The dollar was trading at 108.38 yen at 3 p.m. Friday, up 0.66 yen from late Thursday in Tokyo and also above the 108.11 yen it bought in New York later that day.
Stocks slumped led by technology issues following sharp declines in U.S. counterparts overnight on Wall Street, where a cautious forecast from Apple Computer Inc. unsettled investors.
Also dampening market sentiment in Tokyo was weak earnings results from International Business Machines Corp. of the United States, the world's top provider of computer hardware, and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Ltd.
Semiconductor testing device maker Advantest Corp. and other tech blue chips Canon Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sony Corp. dropped. Major banks UFJ Holdings Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. also lost ground, along with issues related to domestic economy.
Mitsubishi Estate Co. and Mitsui Fudosan Co. fell, as did construction companies like Kajima Corp. and Taisei Corp.
In New York Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average slumped 125.18, or 1.20 percent, to 10,278.75. The Nasdaq composite index shed 27.66, or 1.40 percent, to 1,946.71.
The broader TOPIX, which includes all issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, shed 17.75 points, or 1.52 percent, to finish Friday's trading at 1,150.67. The TOPIX lost 7.97 points, or 0.68 percent, the day before.
In currency trading, the dollar rose against the yen in Asia Friday as Japanese institutional investors bought the U.S. currency as part of their investment in dollar-denominated assets for Japan's new fiscal year that began April 1.
"Though the market is beginning to have slight doubts over the strength of U.S. growth recently, the overall dollar-bullish sentiment is holding firm," said Katsuhiro Kaneko, senior manager of foreign exchange at Mitsubishi Securities.
Also supporting the dollar against the yen are falling Japanese stock prices over the past several days, dealers said.
The euro slipped to $1.2797 from $1.2877 late Thursday and to 138.68 yen from 138.69 yen.
The yield on Japan's benchmark 10-year government bond fell to 1.3050 percent from Thursday's finish of 1.3400 percent. Its price rose 0.31 point to 99.95.