The Nikkei average fell 1 percent after a cut to Japan's sovereign debt rating, with some analysts saying the downgrade may become a turning point for foreigners who have led a rally in the benchmark since November. Selling of Nikkei 225 futures also contributed to weakness in the cash market, where financial stocks led declines on concerns they might be exposed to higher procurement costs.
Standard & Poor's cut Japan's long-term debt rating by one notch to AA minus on concerns that the government lacked a coherent plan to tackle mounting debt. "The rating reflects the country's current fiscal position. Therefore funds that have been overweight on Japan since last November may reconsider their position," said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
With Japan earnings season having begun in earnest, companies with downbeat results or outlooks like chip equipment maker Advantest and steelmaker JFE Holdings lost ground although construction machinery maker Komatsu Ltd climbed. The benchmark Nikkei ended the day down 1.1 percent at 10,360.34 but rose 0.8 percent on the week. The broader Topix fell 1.1 percent to 919.69.
Volume picked up from the previous day, with 2.1 billion shares changing hands on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board, in line with last week's average. Declining shares outpaced advancing ones by 1,318 to 263. Banks underperformed, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group falling 2.7 percent to 434 yen, Mizuho Financial Group dropping 1.2 percent to 162 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group shedding 1.6 percent to 2,870 yen.
"It looks like investors are offloading their positions on banks because they were reminded of the dire state of Japan's public finances, but I don't think this is going to last very long," said Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief equity marketing officer at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
"Securities stocks as well as real estate shares - those stocks that have recently outperformed - are also being sold as investors used the downgrade as an excuse to lock in profits." Advantest plunged 7.4 percent to 1,709 yen after it forecast annual operating profit at 6.5 billion yen, 40 percent below the market consensus. The maker of semiconductor testing devices has a 1.4 percent weighting in the Nikkei 225.
JFE Holdings fell 3.3 percent to 2,643 yen after it slashed its annual profit forecast by 23 percent to 170 billion yen, far below a market consensus estimate of 224 billion yen. But Komatsu Ltd jumped 2.3 percent to 2,502 yen after the construction machinery maker said its nine-month net profit surged more than five times from a year earlier on strong sales in China and other emerging markets.
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