TOKYO: Tokyo stocks lost 1.44 percent on Tuesday morning on weaker export shares after the euro fell amid doubts over the strength of a European pact aimed at ending the eurozone financial crisis.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 124.68 points to 8,529.14 by the lunch break. The Topix index of all first-section issues sank 8.15 points, or 1.09 percent, at 738.54.
The euro fell late Monday and remained weaker Tuesday.
It fetched $1.3178 and 102.70 yen in Tokyo morning trade, compared with $1.3188 and 102.72 yen in New York late Monday. The dollar was flat against the Japanese currency, at around 77.90 yen.
European Union leaders last week agreed on a pact designed to tighten fiscal discipline and economic union within the bloc but criticisms by credit-rating companies sent European and US stocks as well as the euro tumbling.
The Nikkei was down amid growing concerns over further potential downgrades of European sovereign debt, said Hideyuki Ishiguro, supervisor of investment strategy at Okasan Securities.
Moody's said the debt talks had offered "few new measures" and that the crisis remains in a "critical and volatile stage."
It said it would review ratings of all European Union nations early next year in light of the failure to come up with the measures it believed necessary to tame the eurozone debt crisis.
Fitch Ratings warned that "market tension remains high" and predicted a "significant" economic downturn in Europe.
In Tokyo trading, exporters with major business in Europe fell, with Nikon down 2.42 percent at 1,687 yen and Canon down 1.42 percent at 3,450.
Olympus shares rose 6.53 percent to 1,385 yen as fears faded of a delisting. The company is expected to file a financial report Wednesday in time for the deadline to avoid delisting.
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