Nikkei sinks further below 9,000

Tokyo stocks dipped further below the 9,000 line on Friday, extending hefty losses sustained during the most volatile week since the March 11 earthquake as the yen's strength prompted foreigners to sell carmakers, pulling Toyota Motor to its lowest level this year.
The Nikkei's loss took it 12 percent below its post-quake closing high, hit on July 8, after a spike in volatility across markets on rumours about the health of European banks, mounting questions about the stability of funding markets and authorities struggling to solve a crisis of confidence in Europe. "It's a great shame, but during this week I had to completely overhaul my strategy for this year," said Takashi Aoki, a senior fund manager at Mizuho Asset Management, adding that Friday's losses were exacerbated by a fall in US stock futures and position tweaking ahead of the weekend.
Other institutional investors took a similar approach, piling into domestic demand-related and defensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals and retailers, while dumping the likes of Honda Motor Corp, which was down 12 percent on the week, and Hitachi , which ended the week 7 percent lower.
The Nikkei lost 0.2 percent on Friday to end at 8,963.72, while the broader Topix fell 0.4 to 768.19. The Nikkei was down 3.6 percent on the week. Gree's startling ascent contrasted with the fall of gaming giant Nintendo, which hit its lowest intra-day level since May 2004, closing down 4.6 percent at 10,900 yen a day after it started selling the Nintendo 3DS handheld game device with a much-reduced price tag in Japan.
Volumes ahead of the weekend eased from this week's highs, with 2.0 billion shares changing hands on the main board, in line with the last week's daily average. Market players said Friday's falls were limited as investor confidence was boosted after purchases of exchange-traded funds to the tune of 25.6 billion yen ($333 million) carried out by the Bank of Japan the day before and by hopes for a technical rebound next week.
The Nikkei's 14-day RSI, a measure of momentum that is used to indicate overbought or oversold conditions, was below 30 for the whole week - the oversold threshold. That is the longest string of days below 30 since the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008.
Shares of Canon Inc jumped 5.6 percent to 3,590 yen after it said on Thursday it plans to buy back up to 1.2 percent of its outstanding shares, while Toyota Motor slipped 1.1 percent to 2,819 yen, its lowest level since November 1. Decliners outpaced advancing shares by a ratio of 5 to 4.