TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 1.42 percent by the break Friday amid worries over the eurozone debt crisis as the European Central Bank (ECB) dashed hopes for big bond purchases from the bloc's ailing economies.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 122.89 points at 8,541.69. The Topix index of all first-section issues was 0.80 percent lower, or 5.95 points, at 739.16.
The fall came after US stocks tumbled Thursday on worries Europe will fail to muster the firepower needed to contain its debt troubles, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 1.63 percent to finish at 11,997.70.
The ECB at a governing council meeting on Thursday cut its key rates and boosted measures to help banks, with its Italian president, Mario Draghi, saying the lender would continue to play its part as a firefighter in the crisis, but that it was for governments to solve the problem.
"The ultimate decisions are in the hands of leaders," Draghi said.
Yumi Nishimura, senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities, said that the focus was now shifting to the outcome of the ongoing European Union summit to be wrapped up later Friday.
Divided EU leaders were battling over treaty change at the crunch talks.
A diplomat said in Brussels Thursday that the European Union has reached a deal in principle on tougher fiscal rules to combat the eurozone's debt crisis although the details still need to be worked out.
Shortly before the market opened, revised government data showed Japan's economy grew an annualised 5.6 percent in the third quarter, down from 6.0 percent announced previously.
The latest figure still confirmed Japan's first growth in three quarters, but the downward revision did not bode well for the world's third-largest economy, said Mizuho Research and Consulting senior economist Norio Miyagawa.
The data showed "capital spending as well as personal consumption were weaker than initially thought," and stocking-up inventories were also "worrisome", he said.
Going forward, overseas conditions, especially those in Europe, "pose a great downside risk to Japan," he said.
On Friday, China said inflation was at its lowest in more than a year in November, boosting expectations that "China's (monetary) easing measures will expand," said Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management.
But "the focus in the broader markets is on the European Union", Okumura added.
Toyota Motor shares were 0.79 percent lower at 2,626 yen ahead of the automaker's full-year earnings forecast later Friday, while scandal-hit Olympus was trading 1.61 percent lower at 1,159 yen.
The camera and medical equipment maker, which has admitted hiding massive investment losses for years, has said it is aiming to meet a December 14 deadline to release its earnings, and avoid a delisting of its shares.
Shares in Tokyo Electric Power, operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, rose 1.63 percent to 248 yen. The rise came after a report Thursday said the Japanese government planned to buy at least 1.0 trillion yen worth of the firm's new shares next year.
The euro bought $1.3311 and 103.41 yen in early Asian trade, down from $1.3341 and 103.58 yen in New York late Thursday. The dollar was almost unchanged against the Japanese currency, at 77.68 yen.
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