Tokyo stocks fall as automakers, banks end in the red

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks lost ground Friday as a strong yen dragged Toyota and other major exporters into negative territory while Japan's big banks also ended the day lower.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed down for the third day, despite another record close for the Dow in New York.

Sentiment in Tokyo took a hit as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin lowered US growth expectations, throwing the spotlight on President Donald Trump's speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Trump is expected to outline his plans for tax cuts and other measures aimed at boosting the world's top economy.

A string of Japanese data, including factory output and inflation, will also be in focus next week.

On Friday, Tokyo shares were held back as the dollar remained weak at 112.77 yen, down from 113.25 yen in Tokyo on Thursday and the 114 yen level seen last week.

A stronger yen hurts the profitability of Japan's major exporters and tends to dent demand for their shares.

"Buying sentiment was dampened by a strong yen for sure," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP.

"But selling pressure was not too strong as investors seemed to be buying on dips."

The Nikkei fell 0.45 percent, or 87.92 points, to close at 19,283.54. It ticked up 0.25 percent over the week.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was down 0.39 percent, or 6.11 points, to end the day at 1,550.14, but it rose 0.36 percent this week.

Toyota fell 0.76 percent Friday to 6,448 yen while Panasonic declined 0.23 percent to end at 1,258.5 yen.

Banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial dropped 0.75 percent to 758.4 yen and rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial was off 0.24 percent to finish at 4,470 yen.

Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, slipped 0.28 percent to 35,180 yen and mobile carrier SoftBank, another heavyweight, dropped 0.48 percent to 8,600 yen.

But Toshiba rebounded 4.13 percent to close at 223.9 yen after a news report said it may place its loss-hit US nuclear arm Westinghouse Electric into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Separately, Toshiba said it was ready to spin off a majority stake in its prized memory chip business -- seen as critical to raising cash and repairing its battered balance sheet.