TOKYO: Tokyo stocks ended mixed on Monday as late bargain-hunting recouped some of the morning session's losses, which followed a sharp fall on Wall Street last week and poor September trade figures.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange edged 0.09 percent, or 8.03 points, higher to 9,010.71, while the Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.09 percent, or 0.67 points, to 753.72.
The Nikkei opened 1.4 percent lower after official data showed Japan logged a $7.0 billion trade deficit in September, hit by the global slowdown and fallout from a bitter territorial spat with its biggest trading partner, China.
It was Japan's worst September trade figure in more than 30 years, with exports falling 10.3 percent on-year. Exports to China tumbled 14.1 percent.
"The weak Japan September trade numbers were horrible, while Mitsubishi Corp.'s forecast cut is also weighing heavily on the market," CLSA equity strategist Nicholas Smith told Dow Jones Newswires.
Hopes for further easing by the Bank of Japan pushed down the yen, boosting exporters with bargain-hunting helping erase some of the early losses and sent the Nikkei index into positive territory before the closing bell.
Exporters had a mixed session with Toyota rising 0.31 percent to 3,150 yen while Sony dipped 0.40 percent to 979 yen.
Mitsubishi lost 1.81 percent to 1,404 yen as the trading house slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year to March 2013 after markets closed Friday.
The company said it now expects a 330 billion yen net profit, down from an earlier 500 billion yen forecast. It blamed the change on a fall in global commodity prices and a prolonged strike at its Australian coking coal subsidiary.
Electronics giant Sharp Corp. rose 7.38 percent to 160 yen following reports that it is in talks to ink long-term LCD panel supply deals with computer giant Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
On currency markets the dollar rose to 79.64 yen from 79.32 yen in New York late Friday, while the euro bought $1.3055 and 103.98 yen in Tokyo, against $1.3067 and 103.31 yen in New York late Friday.
US markets sank Friday with the Nasdaq pulled down by a tech stock rout led by Apple and Microsoft as a series of disappointing earnings and trimmed forecasts spooked investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.52 percent at 13,343.51 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gave up 2.19 percent to end at 3,005.62.
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